The Army of Christ

The death of Jesus on the Cross and his Resurrection for the dead dealt a massive and decisive blow against the Devil and the powers of darkness.  The Devil could never recover from this defeat and in his good time, God will make all things new and sin and evil will be no more.

In the meantime, however, the Devil still continues to fight against God and try to draw people away from God.  And even though Jesus has beaten the Devil, each one of us must still fight bravely against the Devil.  The great thing is that now the Devil does not have everything his own way.

The Church Militant

When Jesus went back to Heaven he left behind him an Army to fight against the Devil and to bring back people to God.  This Army we call the Church Militant or Fighting Church.  We joined it at our Baptism.  That is why, when you were baptised the priest made the sign of the Cross on your forehead (for the Cross is the badge of the Christian Army) and said, “Do not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified”.  And everyone present said:

“Fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ
against sin, the world and the devil,
and remain faithful to Christ to the end of your life”. (1)

To each one of us in his Army Christ gives his own power so that we can beat the Devil as he did.  We are given this power when we say our prayers and when we receive the Sacraments of his Church.  For prayer and the Sacraments are weapons against which the Devil is powerless.

Prayer

Each morning in our prayers we should offer ourselves to God to be his completely; and, since he has given to each of us our own holy Guardian Angel to look after us, we should ask our Guardian Angel to keep watch over us during the day.  It was St Michael the Archangel who thrust Satan from Heaven (Revelation 12:7-9), so we can always trust the angels to fight against evil.

During the day we should make every effort to avoid situations which we know may lead us into sin.  But if some sudden temptation comes, we should quickly send a prayer for help, such as, “Jesus, help me”.  We can do that wherever we are, but we must be sure to do it at once and if necessary repeat it.  Such a prayer is always answered – Jesus will always help us. 

But as we know too well, there are times when we give way to temptation and think or say or do wrong things.  It is very important that we come back to God as quickly as possible by telling him we are sorry and will try not to sin again.  It is helpful to think of all that Jesus suffered to save us from our sins and how much he loves us.

The Sacraments

In Confirmation Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit of God to equip us as his soldiers in the world.  And in Holy Communion we are united to Jesus himself in his Risen and Ascended Body; and against Jesus the Devil is powerless.  Many people find it helpful to use the Sacrament of Reconciliation (go to Confession) regularly as a way of receiving God’s forgiveness, grace to carry on the battle and advice from a priest to help us in our own particular situation.