THE ENEMIES OF GOD ARE OUR ENEMIES

“Be wise in your dealings with the world and with the world within the Church — they are at enmity with Me” (Interior Word).

Are we sufficiently aware of this reality? Do we truly understand that we no longer live in an environment marked by the Christian faith?

The words of warning we hear in today’s sentence are necessary to avoid fraternizing blindly with the world, which unfortunately happens more and more in the Church. When this happens, we are no longer aware that the world is an enemy with whom we must deal wisely and cautiously, but it seems that it is a kind of “partner” with whom we can ally ourselves, and not infrequently we end up adopting its mentality and its methods.

However, this attitude is far removed from what our Heavenly Father transmits to us through the Gospel and the Church’s teachings throughout the centuries: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect“ (Rom 12:2).

This is the criterion for dealing with the world wisely. A renewed mind gives us the ability to see worldly realities from God’s perspective and distance ourselves where necessary. Only that which does not affect our faith or offend God can be integrated into our Christian life. The virtue of prudence teaches us to remember that the powers of darkness often hide behind the spirit of the world to pursue their own objectives. This realization brings us face-to-face with the true enemy, who uses the world to deceive people and is hostile to our heavenly Father. The situation becomes even more tragic when this spirit penetrates more and more into the Church, which should be the one to identify it and fight it properly.

The enemies of God are also our enemies. Any other perspective would be a deception.