Our Lady's role in the spiritual warfare
OUR
LADY’S ROLE IN THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Mario
D’Couto
It is quite often the case that the
words “war” and “warfare” are used interchangeably although there is a subtle difference.
While war refers to the state of an armed conflict characterized by a specific
and often prolonged confrontation between two or more opposing groups or
nations, warfare on the other hand is the engagement and activities of war,
including the theory, tactics and methods used to conduct it. In simple words,
think of war as the conflict itself for instance the Vietnam War and warfare as
the way it is fought like the guerilla warfare for example and so with that
being said, this blogpost/reflection is towards an understanding of Our Lady’s
role in the spiritual warfare and why She plays an important role.
On the very outset, we need to
understand who the enemy is. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians
that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and
powers, against the directors of the world of darkness, against the spirit of
wickedness in high places as seen in Ephesians 6:12. Too often the enemy, that
is the devil or Satan has always been played down that he is nothing more than
a mythical character and that he is just a fictitious concoction by religious
leaders to instil fear among its followers or just a superstitious figure. But
nothing could be further from the truth. You see our Blessed Lord tells us in
the Gospel that the enemy is a liar and a thief (as seen in John 8:44 and John
10:10) and like any thief, who tries to steal, a thief does not say, “Hey,
hi, I am going to rob you”. A thief is sneaky and finds ways and means to
steal without being noticed. Likewise the enemy is perhaps the most happiest
person when people downplay his existence because the more it happens, he has
greater control. If that still does not convince you, perhaps we could ask the
question about why are there so many wars, murders, conflicts and other forms
of atrocities where humankind can be its own worst enemy. Well, there are many
who may like to attribute it to the psychological dysfunction of the human
psyche but looking at how the history of humankind has panned out, we may want
to think otherwise. How does one account for the cold blooded murders that was
levied by one man who was responsible for the lives of so many people who died
at the concentration camp; how does one account for the persecution of the
people by an emperor who we could probably say was a maniac? These examples are
just a tip of the iceberg of the many cases that have occurred but it only goes
to show the extent or to what extreme the human person can go. Can this all be
a matter of a psychological dysfunction or is there something more fatal that
we need to reconsider?
For starters, man was created
spotless and perfect by God but because of his disobedience, he lost what was
given to him when he gave into the temptation of the enemy. The good thing
though is that in as much as man is capable of extreme acts of destruction, he
is also capable of doing a lot of good and so if there is anything such as sin
that exists then there must be someone who is the initiator behind it who is
none other than the devil or Satan. On the other hand, if there is good that
exists, then there must be Someone who is the author of that goodness whom we
call God. Given the fact that humankind lost the gift that was originally
bestowed on them at the dawn of creation, God did not abandon but chose to
redeem by sending His Son and that is not only humankind but the whole of
creation.
What is interesting about this
whole saga is that in as much as God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient,
He still invites us, His children, the crown of His creation to work with Him.
Just think for a moment, God could have created everything complete, needing no
further development. Yet it would be interesting to note that He created
animals but did not give them names, He created land but did not create
irrigation systems, He created stars but did not create an iPhone app that
would allow us to hold a pocket-size computer up to the sky to see them all by
name. Thus we could say that after working for six days, God left the earth
largely undeveloped and uncultivated. He created a canvas and then invited us
to join Him in filling it and this same pattern has been recurring throughout
salvation history. God being Who He is could have just snapped His fingers and
probably reset the whole of creation because of the fall of humankind but no,
He chose to let His creation carry on despite the fall and would redeem it by
sending His own Son. Hence with that being said, keeping in mind about what we
had alluded to regarding man’s co-operative role in God’s salvific plan, He
chose a woman to bring forth His Son into the world.
Now many of my protestant brethren
would love to say that Mary was just a woman to bring forth our Blessed Lord
into this world like as though God just selected some random woman to bring
forth His Son into this world. Well, if that were the case then perhaps Jesus
should be no greater than any man on earth. Keep in mind that we are talking
about the Son of God here and thus if He were to come into this world in human
form, God would have definitely made the necessary arrangements for His Son to
come into humanity uncontaminated by the stain of sin of our first parents that
is the original sin which is why the Fathers of the Church, most notably,
Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyon who spoke about the protoevangelium,
attributed it to Our Blessed Lord and Our Lady. To use an analogy, imagine if
you had a suit that was to be worn for a special occasion, you would not want to
keep it in a dusty closet or use it as a mop cloth. That would be insane!
Likewise in order for our Blessed Lord to be incarnate in human form, Our Lady
was chosen before hand and She was prepared for the role which is why She was
conceived without original sin or the sin of our first parents. I could
probably go on with this topic but for now it is enough to know that She was immaculately
conceived and thus with that being said, here’s what we need to keep in mind
when it comes to Our Lady’s role in the spiritual warfare.
As alluded to at the beginning of
this blogpost/reflection, when the word “warfare” is used, it refers to the
theory, tactics and the method used to conduct the act of war and when it comes
to the spiritual warfare, whoever has a filial devotion to Our Lady can be
assured of their victory over the enemy and there is a reason for that which is
because the devil hates Our Lady. At the very outset it must be made clear that
Our Lady is not a goddess. Like all of us, She too is part of God’s creation
and we may just say that She is God’s most perfect disciple because even though
She did not understand or could not make sense of what God was calling Her to
do, She willingly obeyed what God called Her to do and pondered everything in
Her heart. It is Her humility that gets under the skin of the enemy. He can’t
stand the fact that a human being has power over him. Of course ultimately the power
comes from God but because God chose Our Lady to bring forth His Son, She
therefore becomes His mother, the “Theotokos” which when translated from Greek
literally means “Mother of God”. For nine months, a mother and the child she
carries in the womb live the same life – a symbiosis. The health of the fetus
depends on the health of the mother. Its heart and brain and muscle are all
formed from the substance of the mother and nourished by it. Biologically and
affectively the greatest and the closest relationship is the one that exists
between the mother and her child.
Applying this to the relationship
between Mary and Jesus, we can say that He learnt His first lessons of life
from His Mother. The same Jesus has given His Mother to be our Mother as seen
in John 19:27 and thus She is indeed, after Jesus, the most beautiful
manifestation of God’s love and mercy towards the human race. No one has ever
devoted to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithful as Mary. The
eyes of Her heart already turned to Him at the Annunciation, when She conceived
Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed, She began to
sense His presence and to picture His features. When at last She gave birth to
Him in Bethlehem, Her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of Her Son,
as She ‘wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger’.
