During his homily yesterday at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis spoke about how all of us are called to fight in the great war between God and Satan, but He has given this task primarily to our angels who job it is to fight and win!
According to Vatican Radio, Francis said we must fight against the subtle plans of destruction and dehumanization brought forth by the devil — who “presents things as if they were good”, even inventing “humanistic explanations”, which is an everyday reality. And unless we fight “we will be defeated”, but we should be reassured that we’re not alone in this battle because the Lord entrusted the archangels with the task of defending us.
The pope referred to Revelation 12:7-12: “Now war arose in heaven: Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world — he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him”.
This is the battle between the Devil and God, he explained, but one which happens after Satan seeks to destroy the woman who is about to give birth to her child. Because “Satan always seeks to destroy man . . . from the beginning, the Bible tells us about this: Satan’s seduction to destroy. Perhaps out of envy.”
This is why “so many projects, except for one’s own sins, but so many, many projects for the dehumanization of man are his [Satan’s] work, simply because he hates man,” the pope said. “Satan is subtle: the first page of Genesis says so. He is subtle, he presents things as if they were good. But his intention is destruction.”
For this reason, we need the help of our angels. “. . . (T)he angels defend us: they defend man and they defend God-man, the superior man, Jesus Christ, who is the perfection of humanity, the most perfect one”. This is why “the Church honors the angels, because it is they who will be in the glory of God — they are in the glory of God — because they defend the great hidden mystery of God, that is, the Word which came in the flesh.”
Jesus is exactly “who they want to destroy; and when they cannot destroy Jesus the person, they seek to destroy his people; and when they cannot destroy the People of God, they invent humanistic explanations that actually go against man, against humanity and against God”.
This battle is a “daily reality in Christian life, in our family, in our people, in our Churches,” he said, and “unless we fight, we will be defeated”. However, “the Lord has mainly given this task to the angels”, that is, “to fight and win”.
“The task of the People of God is to guard the man himself: the man Jesus. Guard him, because he is the man who gives life to all men, to all humanity”. And, from their side, “the angels fight in order that man wins”. Thus, “the man, the Son of God, Jesus and man, humanity, all of us, fight against all these things that Satan does to destroy him”.
He went on to encourage the faithful to pray to the Archangels, particularly to recite the prayer to St. Michael, asking him to continue to “defend humanity’s greatest mystery: that the Word became man, died and rose again” because “this is our treasure.”
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