With today’s meditation I conclude this series which I began after the systematic reflections on the Gospel of St John in preparation for the great solemnity of Easter.
A brief recapitulation is in order to highlight the essentials. After this meditation, we will return to the accounts of the Lord’s death and burial in the Gospel of John.
The concept of ‘discretion’, which we have learned from the desert fathers and which means ‘discernment of spirits’ in ecclesiastical usage, has led us to look carefully at the situation in the Church and in the world and to apply it also to our spiritual life. In analysing the spiritual armour proposed in the Letter to the Ephesians, we have come to the conclusion that we must prepare ourselves for the spiritual combat, which goes beyond the personal sphere, especially when we consider the anti-Christian threats to the world and to the Church.