One of our great intentions is that the figure and mission of St Joan of Arc be properly understood, so that God, who called her, may receive the praise, and she, who cooperated in His plan of salvation, may be honoured as she deserves. Joan of Arc is a great gift from the Lord and certainly one of the most beautiful creatures to come from the hand of God.
Joan has been honoured with the title of “the Maiden” or “the Virgin of Orleans”. In fact, in many ways she resembles the Virgin Mary, whom she loved tenderly. Let us recall, for example, that both virgins were visited at an early age by an archangel who informed them of the uniqueness of their mission. For the Blessed Virgin, it was the Archangel Gabriel who announced that she would conceive and give birth to the Saviour of the world. For Joan of Arc, on the other hand, it was St Michael the Archangel who prepared her for her mission to liberate France from the yoke of English occupation and to crown the rightful king.
If we want to understand Joan’s important mission in our time, we must look at the situation in the world today. If our inner eyes have been opened by faith, it will hardly have escaped our notice that an anti-Christian spirit is manifesting itself massively on a global level and especially in certain states, especially on a political level. It has spread particularly in the so-called ‘free world’ and is creeping into legislation with increasing intensity.
It seems that people are under increasing pressure from governments and large organisations that have taken a direction that is hostile to life.
With the eyes of faith, we must become aware that many governments are already under the dominion of Satan, who wants to establish a global anti-Christian kingdom.
At the same time, we are witnessing how this anti-Christian spirit is infiltrating even the Holy Church, seeking to demolish the bastion that once offered resistance to the seizure of power by an Antichrist, or even the last Antichrist, who will manifest himself at the end of time.
Today we cannot go into battle with a physical army to defend ourselves against an enemy that threatens our homeland, as Joan of Arc did. Today’s enemy threatens human life on a global scale. And, as St Paul makes clear, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities (…) and evil spirits” (Eph 6:12).
The anti-Christian spirit – we can call it “Lucifer” – rebels against God and wants to take power over men through an Antichrist; a power whose wiles and injustices will probably surpass anything we have seen in the history of mankind.
In order to install the “the man of lawlessness”, the “son of destruction” (2 Thess 2:3), Lucifer will take advantage of the evil inclinations and blindness of men, and thus carry out his dark plans through them. They will not realise the ignominy, or they will realise it too late, when what is described in Holy Scripture has already been fulfilled: “The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thess 2:9-10).
In this context, let us consider the two virgins of whom we have spoken.
As far as the Virgin Mary is concerned, we know that she will crush the head of the serpent (cf. Gen 3:15) and that she will certainly help the faithful in a special way during the apocalyptic times of the universal dominion of the Antichrist. Chapter 12 of Revelation reminds us that the Church will be driven for a time into the desert, where she will find refuge when the “dragon” makes war on “the rest of his offspring, who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:17).
The Maid of Orleans will certainly not stand idly by while a “false king” seeks world power; but, at the Lord’s command, she will fight on the side of the faithful, together with the holy angels, for, as we have said, the mission of the saints does not end with their ascension to heaven. She will try to frustrate all the pretensions of this “false king” (the Antichrist) to gain control over the faithful.
When not only France but the whole of humanity is in danger of being subjected to the rule of a usurper who also blasphemes against God, Saint Joan will not rest until an army has been formed to offer her spiritual resistance, in the midst of which she herself will fight.
It is the “army of the Lamb” that she will help and guide. Just as in her time Joan strengthened her soldiers so that they would not be discouraged in the face of the apparent superiority of the enemy, so the Maid of Orleans will strengthen all the faithful in this spiritual battle, encouraging them to trust in God.
Tomorrow, in the third reflection after the audio-novel, we will talk about the “army of the Lamb” and how we ourselves can take our place in it.