The enemy uncloaked...

You'll recall what I wrote yesterday, about the spiritual warfare surrounding going on retreat. I've just found a long, extraordinary post by Abbot Joseph, Superior of Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Redwood Valley, CA, titled The Enemy of the Contemplative Life.

Abbot Joseph is of course writing of the monastic vocation, very different from my own Tertiary vocation as a kind of contemplative-in-the-world, and many of the challenges faced in a monastic setting are different in degree, if not in kind, to those I might face.

(It's worth noting here that this is my Tertiary vocation: other Third Order Franciscans, whether TSSF, SFO, OEF, et al., will have their own, which may well be very different. See The Principles TSSF, 13: "We as Tertiaries desire to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, whom we serve in the three ways of Prayer, Study, and Work. In the life of the Order as a whole, these three ways must each find full and balanced expression, but it is not to be expected that all members devote themselves equally to each of them. Each individual's service varies according to their abilities and circumstances, yet as individual members our Personal Rule of Life must include each of the three ways.")

Abbot Joseph writes, quoting The Contemplative Life, by Fr Thomas Philippe, O.P.:

Since nature does not have to furnish any predispositions for the contemplative life, the greatest obstacles to this life do not come from our nature. The obstacles that arise from within us are not on the same plane as our contemplative life. Our proper enemy is Satan; being a pure spirit, he is on the same plane as contemplation...

The contemplative life demands a great deal of confidence. Since the intimate knowledge of God grows only in peace, contemplatives are particularly vulnerable to disturbance. The contemplative life is very delicate, a life in faith and in darkness; hence it lacks the security that comes from seeing for oneself. This makes our lives very vulnerable to disturbance the moment we become separated ever so little from the hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Within this sanctuary, in the deepest part of our souls, the devil cannot act. This is the domain of contemplative prayer in which the Holy Spirit alone is master. The heart of Jesus is an impregnable fortress for us. The devil's strategy is to try to make us leave this fortress of love and lead us onto the field of the imagination or of false lights, where he can attack us.

The devil was created for contemplation; the contemplative life is, therefore, normal for him. Along with his intelligence, he has retained a sense of the contemplative life; only it no longer blossoms into love. Having rejected God as his supernatural end, he can no longer find repose in God. He has, therefore, no place of rest, not even a natural one; that is why, as St Augustine says, he wanders about in the world like an intruder.

We can understand his hatred of religious, poor human beings who by nature are not made for a purely contemplative life as he was, but who by grace now possess what he rejected. Knowing only too well the demands of contemplation, he makes every effort to impede it by creating disturbance.

His second objective is to sow the tares of dissension and division. It is easy for him to do this, for the only basis of total and permanent union among contemplatives is the love of God; as soon as we step outside that love, there is occasion for division. As a result of his sin, Satan has fallen into the realm of division, and he seeks to draw us into his wake.

The remedy is very simple. We should always try to come back very humbly into our Lord's presence and into his peace. We should follow the example of the saints and not seek to flout the devil or even look at the temptation. If we stay on his level, we are always in danger of being defeated: 'Satan is an admirable dialectician.' But we have a defense against which he has no weapon: faith, trust, love, and docility to the Holy Spirit. As long as we are in the domain of contemplative prayer with the Blessed Virgin, we are safe; as soon as we leave it, he can do with us as he will. We must never want to 'play' with him, not even to insult him. This can be a subtle temptation, and it is dangerous, for he is intelligent and powerful...

The children of the Blessed Virgin [Fr Thomas will I imagine be thinking of us here as adopted siblings of Jesus, v. Ephesians 1.5] should avoid acting as the children of Eve: abstain from curiosity, and not play games with Satan. Rather, they should follow Mary's faith, obedience, and humility.

I was struck by Abbot Joseph's remark, "The heart of Jesus is an impregnable fortress for us. The devil's strategy is to try to make us leave this fortress of love and lead us onto the field of the imagination or of false lights, where he can attack us." I think this is one of the great strengths of a prayer like the Jesus Prayer, which as well as being used "formally", in a set prayer time, can be repeated continually throughout the day. The problem with "arrow prayers", prayers sent up quickly to God in times of trouble, is that if the enemy has, even for an instant, succeeded in persuading us out of that fortress, we probably won't think of them in the heat of the moment. What's needed is something much more like Brother Lawrence's Practice of the Presence of God, and there the Jesus Prayer excels.

Needless to say, if you read yesterday's post, you will realise that I don't always manage to practice what I'm preaching here. But in a sense it doesn't really matter if I don't manage it. God in his mercy will bring good out of my weakness (Romans 8.28, 2 Corinthians 12.9) and will use someone else - like my own dear Jan! - to bring me to my senses. After all, in the Jesus Prayer we pray, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The prayer, thank God, doesn't specify how, or through whom, that mercy will come!