Satan’s weapons

one

Distinction and Unity

At the heart of all being and goodness, at the heart and essence of God Himself, is the Trinity. The Trinity shows us the absolutely fundamental character of Distinction and Unity. In the Trinity, there is absolute distinction. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, and neither one are the Holy Spirit. They are truly not the same. They are truly distinct.

But in the Trinity, there is also absolute union.

The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all celebrate together, give and receive without reservation, and are united in all that they think and do. Since we are made in God’s image, and destined to be like God, it follows that distinction and unity should be the mark of virtuous Christian living. And it is.

two

Clear distinctions for the intellect and loving unity for the will

Of all creatures on the earth, only the human person has an intellect and a will. This is what sets us aside from the beasts, it makes us like God and open to God.

We must use our intellect and will in a manner that reflects God’s perfect Trinitarian life of distinction and unity.

Our mind is perfected by distinction. By clearly seeing what things are and what they are not. By recognizing both the similarities between things and the differences between things. By being careful to make sure our ideas, our convictions, our understanding of the most important things is as exact and precise as it can be.

At the same time, our wills are perfected by pursuing unity.

We pursue unity with God, choosing to be united with God by loving what He loves, and by willing His will for us.

Our wills are also perfected by pursuing unity with our neighbors, choosing the other’s good as though it were our good. Making it so that the other person’s happiness is what makes us happy. By love we unite others to ourselves and that is the perfection of our will.

Now since distinction in the mind and unity in the will is what makes us like God, it’s clear that the Devil (who is God’s enemy, and ours) will do everything he can to attack distinction and unity.

That is why he is so active at all times and why, in our own times, he’s so obviously using the weapons of confusion and division.

three

Division and Confusion

Satan hates clarity in the mind. He hates truth, careful thinking. He hates distinction, because distinction is of God. So he sows confusion.

Confusion is when there are two things which are very different from each other, but you can’t tell them apart.

Satan breeds lazy thinking, soft thinking, thinking where everything just congeals so that you can’t tell what’s what. That is an offense against God, and an offense against man who is in God’s image, and was given a mind to make clear distinctions.

Satan also hates love. He hates family, friendship, and community. He hates it when people come together and delight in each other’s company.

So he sows division.

Division is where people regard each other more with revulsion than with appreciation. Division is where we are pleased when misfortunes befall other people, and upset when good things happen to them. Division is where we look for opportunities to punish other people or out-perform them. It’s where we constantly think in categories of “us” vs. “them.” Where their loss is my win, and vice versa. And all this division is an offense against God, and against man who is in God’s image, and was given a will in order to unify many persons through love.

So the Christian call to be like God is also a call to war. It’s a call for distinction and unity. But it’s also a call to constantly battle confusion and division.

four

Fighting intellectual confusion with distinction

The first battle to fight, is to fight confusion with the distinct clarity of the truth.

When things that are not the same are presented as though they are, the Christians stands up and makes distinctions.

When a confused world goes around proclaiming that “love is love” then the Christian stands up and distinguishes ordered love that gives and gives, and generates life, and is faithful unto death, which is not the same, and can never be the same, as unnatural acts which bind people by cords of selfishness and dysfunction and infidelity.

When a confused world goes around proclaiming that whether a child lives or dies should be a woman’s choice, then the Christian stands up and makes the clear distinction showing that the choice to be a wife and a mother is not the same, and can never be the same, as the choice of someone who is already a mother, and has her child growing within her, who chooses to have someone murder her child.

To be like God we must fight for distinction, which means we must fight against the confusion Satan has spread all around us.

This is the task of every Christian: to use their intellect carefully and well to bring clear, careful truth to the world.

five

Fighting personal division with love

The other battle we must fight is the fight against division with the unifying power of love.

When forces in the world are trying to tear people apart, and even tear apart the faithful, we must show the world that we are Christians by our love. When contempt and anger and even hatred is shown for “the other side,” we have to be generous, to be sympathetic, to refrain from judging their hearts or motives, even when they’re so clearly misguided. We have to resist the urge to mock and curse and rejoice in their misfortunes. In other words, we simply have to love our enemies.

When people publicly challenge the Vicar of Christ, the Pope, who is the foundation of the Church’s unity, we have to protect that unity by showing our love, obedience, and reverence for the Church’s hierarchy. We don’t attack unity. By love, we reinforce it.

Maybe most importantly, when someone has hurt us, we have to forgive them unconditionally, and resolve to not put up any obstacles to reconciliation.

What we want, above all else, is to unite with every other human being in heavenly glory. We want to rejoice at seeing everyone we’ve ever known, everyone we’ve ever heard of, passing through St. Peter’s gate. We want to eliminate all obstacles that prevent people from coming together in that supreme joy of God, which is distinct Persons, rejoicing at their perfect unity.