Three Enemies

ONE

I always have the biography of some saint I am reading and working through. I have noticed that every saint faces three enemies: the interior, the intimate and the exterior.

The interior enemy are the virtues or character traits the saints are lacking withing themselves before they set out on their journey to transformation.

The intimate enemy or the traitor is the person who is supposed to be their ally, supposed to be the one to help them but doesn’t. In fact, the traitor goes out his way to make life as difficult as possible for the saint, even to the point of betraying him.

The exterior enemy is the sinful world, Satan, the demons, and the false ideologies they employ to prevent the saint from fulfilling the will of God.

Here is the most ironic thing – with God’s grace, the intimate enemy, the betrayer and the external enemy, the devil and the fallen sinful world, actually help the saint overcome the first enemy, the interior enemy, our lack of virtue.

We have anxiety and fear about the intimate and external enemies because they cause us all kinds of trials, difficulties, and crosses, but, and I want you to hear this clearly – we were made for the struggles we are facing right now and without them we would not be transformed and become what we are meant to become.

The intimate and the external enemies are some of our greatest benefactors – they give us the greatest help to develop the virtues we lacked at the beginning of our journey.

So do not fear them. Thank God for them. He uses them for our transformation to perfect joy.

Who are your external or intimate enemies right now?

TWO

John of the Cross is a great example of a person who God used the intimate and external enemies to help him overcome his internal enemy of a lack of virtue

John was Ordained in 1567

Then he met Teresa of Avila

·       She persuaded him to help her reform the Carmelite Order

·       From a life of busyness and distraction

·       In which they had no time or interest in daily meditation

·       We usually have no time for something when we have no interest in it  

How do you think the Carmelites responded to this effort to make them change?

December 2, 1577 a group of Carmelites

·       kidnapped John and took him to Toledo

·       Tortured and imprisoned him in a 10 x 6 cell

·       With very little light

·       No change of clothes

·       No bed

·       He lived on bread and water for 9 months

Later in life John wrote: the immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart…

We must be emptied to be filled by God

What do you think God was doing in John during this time?

THREE

God did not send the Friars to kidnap, imprison and beat John

·       But God allowed it and turned it in John’s favor

·       Romans 8:28 All things work for good for those who trust God

·       John trusted in Divine Providence

As a result of facing the intimate and external enemies  

·       John surrendered himself totally to God

·       He emptied himself,

·       Detached and Let go of everything

·       And God flooded his souls with the River of Living Water

·       John experienced Contemplation – Heaven on earth

August 15, 1578 John escaped;

He and Teresa of Avila formed a new branch of the Carmelites and they became the two most important teachers on Prayer

As a fruit of his experience John wrote the most important spiritual teachings in the history of the Church such as the Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night

FOUR

We hope and pray that we and our loved ones will not face or experience suffering, failure, or even great trials. But reality, shown to us by the saints is that God in His providence sees in His mind the great masterpiece he wants us to become. Then in his providence he wills or allows things to happen in our life. None of this is by chance or coincidence or happenstance. Everything that happens to us God either wills or allows and all of it God is guiding to bring about our transformation into that Masterpiece.

The part we play is to consent to what God is doing, to say yes to the adventure and put into practice the virtues that each experience, each test, each trial requires.

This is the way we will be transformed.

So don’t pray that God preserve you from all suffering, trials and difficulties!

Pray for the grace to respond to this great adventure of life at each moment with the virtue you are lacking so that in the end – the only enemy that matters – the internal enemy – your own lack of virtue – is overcome and you are transformed in glory!!!

FIVE

Fear can paralyze us in this adventure and prevent our transformation.

When you experience anxiety and fear – ground yourself in reality.

The challenges and crosses you meet are just the instruments God uses to bring out the best in you.

Go forward bravely.

Nothing can happen that God does not will or allow.

You are in the hands of God and under the Mantle of Mary

You are safe.

They will give you the grace to meet the challenge and gain the virtues you need to be transformed.

God My Father and Mary My Mother – I trust you. I am safe

Give me the grace to practice the virtues I need.

God, what are you working in me right now?