church militant

The Church Militant: Fighting The Good Fight

The Church, the Mystical Body, exists on this earth, and is called the Church militant, because its members struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil. Fr. William G. Most

It is hard to argue with this vision of the Church. For any Catholic who has a modicum of sense, the struggle (as they say) is real. For some, persecution or the threat of persecution is a daily horror. Refugees from Syria, for instance, tell of losing their entire families. Egyptian men kneel before religious extremists and lose their lives as they proclaim their faith in Christ. In the U.S., we watch as the government appears to bully a group of Catholic sisters whose mission is to care for the dying poor, those who have no place else to go. And on a personal level, we all seem to have a family member or a loved one who has turned their back on the Faith, or someone who appears to hate the Church.

Yes, it certainly seems like a war to stay hopeful in the promises of Christ. The days are long, the battles hard. We carry our crosses, we pray. We rejoice in fellowship, and we console others in sorrow. At night, we lay down our burdens and examine our consciences, so that tomorrow, we may have the strength to do fight again.

Vietnamese Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan was imprisoned his government for 13 years. He spent 9 of those years in solitary confinement. Yet, reading his words, one hears and sees only hope.

After his release, Pope John Paul II asked the Cardinal if he would give a Lenten retreat at the Vatican. The Cardinal chose the theme of “hope.” Imagine, a man whose freedom was taken from him, who spoke only to his captors for 9 years, still chose “hope.” It was from this Lenten retreat that his book, Testimony of Hope, was born.

Even within the very limited existence Cardinal Van Thuan had in prison, he focused on his work as a spiritual leader and as a follower of Christ. At one point, he expressed his ideas on love. Love, he said, must consist of six things:

  1. Love first.
  2. Love everyone.
  3. Love enemies.
  4. Love by giving your life.
  5. Love by service.

How, one might ask, is a soldier of Christ, a member of the Church militant, to go about loving one’s enemies? Cardinal Van Thuan tells of a conversation with one of the guards assigned to him.

“Do you love us?”

“Yes, I love you.”

“But we have kept you in prison for so many years, without a trial, without a sentence, and you love us? That’s impossible! Perhaps it’s not true!”

“I’ve been with you for many years, you’ve seen that it’s true.”

“When you are free, won’t you send  your faithful to burn our homes, to kill our families?”

“No! Even if you want to kill me, I love you.”

“But why?”

“Because Jesus has taught me to love everyone, even my enemies. If I don’t, I am no longer worthy to be called a Christian.”

“It’s very beautiful, but very hard to understand.”

This is the essence of the Church Militant: to know what God wants of us, to set out to do that very thing and to love all we encounter with the love of Christ, even our enemies, our persecutors, our tormentors. This is a hard lesson, and (as Cardinal Van Thuan’s jailer said) very hard to understand. It is not a “mushy” or sentimental love. It is a love that stands its post, that follows the orders of the leader, that fights for what is right and true and good. However, it is a love whose weapon is the Cross, a weapon that is not wielded in anger and bitterness. No, it is a weapon that is planted before the enemy in love.

The Church Militant is an army of the followers of Christ, who teaches us sacrifice and love, even under the most bitter and harshest of circumstances. May we always have the grace to do battle with evil, with the Cross and the love of Christ Jesus as our weapons.

companions on the journey

Evangelizing Our Companions on the Lenten Journey

If you’re of a certain age, you probably had to read some of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in high school or college. (Don’t worry; there won’t be a quiz.) Chaucer’s work follows a very colorful cast of characters on a pilgrimage.

As we make our spiritual pilgrimage, we have our own host of colorful characters. The thing is, we often don’t get to choose who will journey with us. We don’t pick our co-workers or most of our family members. And while our pilgrimage often makes perfect sense to us, it may not seem so obvious to those around us.

Every Catholic has a duty to evangelize. This can be scary: “What, me, preach? I’m not a theologian or a priest. I don’t know what to say.” Well, part of that duty to evangelize means that we have to know our own Faith.

But evangelization doesn’t have to be scary. Most of the time, it’s just sharing our Faith journey with others. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has some great ideas on how we can do this. For instance, maybe one of your co-workers doesn’t understand the whole “no meat on Fridays” thing:

You love pepperoni pizza. You eat it all the time. Suddenly, you can’t have it on Fridays?! What could possibly be going on? It must be that Catholic thing, again. Absolutely! On Fridays during Lent, we particularly remember the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. In memory of this great sacrifice, we continue the tradition of penance and sacrifice – abstaining from meat on Fridays is an outward manifestation of an interior reality: the conversion of our hearts. As Pope John Paul II has said, “In fact, the external aspects of fasting, though important, do not convey the full measure of the practice. Joined to the practice should be a sincere desire for inner purification, readiness to obey the divine will and thoughtful solidarity with our brothers and sisters, especially the very poor.” Christ himself fasted and prayed in the desert. Through fasting and praying, we unite ourselves with the sacrifice of Christ and offer him reparation for our sins and failings. It’s a little thing to give him in the face of his ultimate sacrifice, but what a grace that our God accepts and loves little gifts!

You can read more ideas for evangelization from the USCCB here.