Jesus fought Satan for our freedom; he likened himself to a plunderer who is stronger than Satan:

‘No one can make his way into a strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he has first tied up the strong man. Only then can he plunder his house.’[i]

Influenced by the Holy Spirit, Jesus fought Satan in the desert where Satan tempted him to disobey God. This face-to-face struggle with evil-in-person affected him so much that angels were sent to minister to him:

‘At once the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert and he remained there for forty days, and was put to the test by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels looked after him.’ [ii]

By overcoming Satan, Jesus was able to free people from evil spirits; this showed that God’s kingdom had arrived:

‘If it is through the finger of God that I drive out devils, then the kingdom of God has indeed caught you unawares. So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own home, his goods are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than himself attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil’ [iii]

Proving himself stronger than Satan through spiritual combat, Jesus was able to knock out Satan’s angels and ‘liberate’ the captives.[iv] People were freed from Satan’s influence to respond to Jesus’ call to ‘repent and believe the Good News,’[v] entering into ‘the glorious freedom of the children of God.’[vi] In the gospel sense, Jesus was a freedom fighter.

The Lord of the Flies

The New Testament reveals that there are a lot of evil spirits. The title ‘Beelzebul’ means ‘Lord of the flies.’ Satan’s angels were compared to a swarm of flies:

The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “Beelzebul is in him,” and “It is through the prince of devils that he casts out devils.” [vii]

In the Book of Revelation, the third of the angels seduced by Satan, were cast down to earth:

‘Its tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and hurled them to the ground … The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had led all the world astray, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him.’ [viii]

One unfortunate soul, at least, had evil spirits swarm over him. Jesus asked the unclean spirit, who was in the Gerasene demonic, “What is your name?” He answered, “My name is Legion for there are many of us.” [ix]

The story was recorded by Alphonsus Rodriguez, in The Practice of Christian Perfection, [x] of a saint being accompanied by an angel to a town below a monastery. This saint was given a vision of all the demons there. To his surprise there were very few demons in the town; most of them were infesting the monastery. The angel explained that Satan was in control of the town; so he had committed his demons to winning over the monks.

Mystic saints tell us of the fight those monks would have had. St Teresa of Avila in her book, The Interior Castle, used an image of seven mansions within the walled city of the soul. The outer mansions lead to the inner mansion where there is the closest union with Jesus. She wrote:

The many legions of evil spirits in each of the many rooms try to prevent souls who enter with good intentions from passing from one to another; the devil is less successful in the later Mansions, but here, as the soul is still absorbed in worldly affairs, pleasures and ambitions, the faculties and senses have no power to resist and are easily vanquished. These souls should, at every opportunity, repair to His Majesty, to the Blessed Mother, and to the Saints.[xi]

Evil spirits gather where Satan’s control is seriously challenged; but other evil spirits still scout out ‘targets of opportunity’. Pope Leo XIII’s prayer to St Michael asks God to ‘thrust down to hell all the evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls.’ [xii]

The Church, A Fighting Machine

Jesus Christ intended his Church to carry on his freedom fighting. He likened the Church to a battering ram, knocking down the gates of hell:

‘You are Peter and this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not hold out against it.’ [xiii]

Jesus intends his Church to break into Satan’s kingdom and to free the captives.

Jesus did not equip his Church with popguns for this attack, but with the same Holy Spirit who drove him into the desert to overpower Satan. It is in the power of the Spirit that the Church carries out the judgement on Satan:

‘Unless I go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world… about judgement: in that the prince of this world is already condemned.’ [xiv]

St Patrick’s contest with the Irish Druids dramatically illustrated the power of the Church to the break through ‘the gates of hell’ and set a country free:

On Easter Day the missionary band having at their head the youth Benignus bearing aloft a copy of the Gospels, and followed by St. Patrick who with mitre and crozier was arrayed in full episcopal attire, proceeded in processional order to Tara. The druids and magicians put forth all their strength and employed all their incantations to maintain their sway over the Irish race, but the prayer and faith of Patrick achieved a glorious triumph. … The demons that made Ireland their battlefield mustered all their strength to tempt the saint and disturb him in his solitude, and turn him away, if possible, from his pious purpose. … The flocks of demons began to scatter. He flung his bell among them; they took to precipitate flight, and cast themselves into the ocean. So complete was the saint's victory over them that, as the ancient narrative adds, "for seven years no evil thing was to be found in Ireland."[xv]

Hand-to-Hand Fighting

Freedom fighting is not just for the Church-at-large or for great saints but for all in the Baptized who make up the ‘the Church Militant’. In our baptismal vows, we reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises.[xvi] Such vows attract individual attention from evil spirits in hand-to-hand combat.

According to Mark’s Gospel, the Baptized are known for their success in overcoming evil spirits:

‘These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils.’ [xvii]

According to John’s First Letter, young people will personally experience victory through fidelity to God’s word: ‘I have written to you, young people, because you are strong, and God’s word remains in you and you have overcome the Evil One’ [xviii]

As a matter of course, St James, St Peter and St Paul encourage Christ’s Faithful to stand up to the devil:

‘Resist the devil and he will run away from you.’ [xix]

‘Keep sober and alert, because your enemy the devil is on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for some to devour. Stand up to him, strong in the faith and in the knowledge that it is the same kind of suffering that the community of your brothers through out the world is undergoing.’ [xx]

‘Grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of his power. Put on the armour of God so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the principalities and the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world, the spirits of evil in the heavens.’ [xxi]

Our weapons are intercessory prayer and the word of God. The Prayer, “Do not put us to the test, but deliver us from the evil one,” [xxii] is a heart-felt cry for a fighter. And like Jesus in the desert, we counter-attack with the word of God. [xxiii]

Evil spirits can attack us, not only spiritually and emotionally but even physically, as the experience of the Saints show:

• St Anthony of Egypt[xxiv], the Father of Monasticism, got beaten by demons in a cave in the desert. Taken for dead, he revived and went right back to fight the demons.

• Her contemporaries said that St Catherine of Sienna’s skeletal body was disfigured by the beatings of demons.[xxv]

• The Cure of Ars was so used to the devil’s nightly visitations that he said, “The grappin and I are almost comrades.” [xxvi] The devil had set fire to his bed.

• Speaking about the Devil and his demons, Padre Pio revealed the mind-boggling ferocity of their devilish malice: “The ogre won’t admit defeat. He has appeared in almost every form. For the past few days, he has paid me visits along with some of his satellites armed with clubs and iron weapons and, what is worse, in their own form as devils.” [xxvii]

We can expect to get battered in some way or other, directly or indirectly. St Paul tells us to “put on the armour of God” [xxviii]. And, when we get battered, it is encouraging to know that ‘suddenly angels appeared and looked after ’ [xxix] Jesus in the desert. God will make sure that we are also cared for, whether by angels, some good samaritan [xxx] or by some other means.

The Cure D’Ars kept his morale high by thinking of the sinners who would be saved:

“In the beginning I was afraid. I did not know then what it was , but now I am quite happy. It is a good sign: there is always a good haul of fish the next day.” “The devil gave me a good shaking last night,’ he would say at times; “we shall have a great number of people tomorrow. The grappin is very stupid: he himself tells me of the arrival of big sinners … He is angry. So much the better!” [xxxi]

The actions of Jesus, the teaching of the New Testament and the experience of the Saints encourage us, as Church and individuals, in the fight to free captives to respond to the Good News. We are to be freedom fighters who save sinners.

******

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.” [xxxii]

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore and make disciples of all nation.” [xxxiii]

“In the world you will find hardship, but be brave: I have conquered the world.” [xxxiv]

******

“The greatest charity is that of liberating souls captivated by Satan and winning them for Christ”

“If the Devil is making an uproar, it is an excellent sign: what is terrifying is his peace and concord with a man’s soul.” - St Padre Pio

[i] Mk 3:27

[ii] Mk 1:12-13

[iii] Lk 11:20-22

[iv] See Lk 4:18

[v] Mk 1:15

[vi] Rom 8:21

[vii] Mk 3:22

[viii] Rev 12:4,9

[ix] Mk 5:9

[x] Rodrigues: The Practice of Christian Perfection http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Rodr%C3%ADguez%2C%20Alfonso%2C%201538-1616

[xi] The Interior Castle, ISBN 0 85574 227 5, page 11.

[xii] http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/b009rpMichael.htm

[xiii] Mt 16:18

[xiv] Jn 16:7-8,11

[xv] The Catholic Encyclopaedia at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11554a.htm

[xvi] See The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, paragraph 217A

[xvii] Mk 16:17

[xviii] 1 Jn 1:14

[xix] Jm 4:7

[xx] 1 Pt 5:8-9

[xxi] Eph 6:10-12

[xxii] See Mt 6:13; Luke 22:31-32; Eph 6:18

[xxiii] See Eph 6:17; also Mt 4:4ff

[xxiv] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_the_Great#Demons_in_the_cave

[xxv] http://catholicism.org/saint-catherine-of-siena.html

[xxvi] The Cure D’Ars by F. Trochu, Tan Books. Page 248

[xxvii] http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/padre_pio.php

[xxviii] Eph 6:13ff

[xxix] Mt 4:11

[xxx] See Lk 10:29-37

[xxxi] Trochu, Op.cit., page 239

[xxxii] Mt 9:36

[xxxiii] Mt 28:19

[xxxiv] Jn 16:33