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Text Box: your enemy for he wishes to have you eternally damned, and only an enemy would desire that. Yes, life is much easier if your enemies let you alone, or if you really would have no enemies. But the only time you have no enemies is when you are a slave; when others make you believe and do what they wish, obliterating your own will - and even then your slave master is your enemy. If for some reason you can not fight those who would enslave you, if you do not just give up, then you will join with others who are of like mind with you, and perhaps together you will protect yourselves against the common enemies, or perhaps you will hire that protection. But then, some of those with whom you have joined will attempt to control you, to enforce a form of slavery against you - it may be a mild form of slavery, but slavery it will be. You can tolerate a certain level of having the common will imposed upon you, but there will be many instances where you will not be able to tolerate it, yet can do nothing to change it. Government sponsored abortion is one such instance for those who oppose abortion; and for those who wish to sin, government prohibition against murder is another such instance - but this is the only instance here where we will even consider the right to commit sin. In the same way worldly enemies make you strong when you prepare to defend yourself, so too does your resistance against temptation, your resistance to sin, make you spiritually strong. Treat temptation and those persons and those situations which are or lead to temptation, or to sin, the same way you would treat those who would kill or enslave or rob you if they had the opportunity. If there is a country which has attacked your country, such as the Japanese in World War II, you would expect your country to defend you and to attack that enemy until the enemy was defeated. Remember that means you too will attack the enemy, for you are part of your country. If there were a group of

Text Box: thugs, or even an individual criminal, from whom you were in danger, you would expect the government officials to protect you, even though you know they really would only try to apprehend them and jail them after they harmed you - and even this is doubtful. But if the criminal were in your house, and you had a loaded gun, would you not shoot the criminal? Or would you think, “If I treat him nice perhaps he will go away and leave me alone.” If you pursue the path of appeasement history shows you are a fool. If you wish to live you would take the gun and shoot the robber - and you would not try to be a super marksman. You would shoot the robber with as many bullets as were in the gun. If you wish to protect yourself you would shoot him. If you wish to protect those who depend upon you, you would shoot him. And if the criminal died, you would be upset that you have killed, and that perhaps the criminal went to hell, but your distress would be greatly tempered by your survival and the survival of those who are dependant upon you. And you would know also that the criminal brought his or her death and damnation upon him or her self. That is how you must treat temptation. You may have to avoid some situations which you really like, and which in and of themselves are not sinful, but which for you can become a near occasion for sin, an occasion of temptation. And you will attack sin when sin attacks you. You will attack it with prayer, with reception of the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ as often as possible. You will attack it with participation in the Divine Liturgy as often and as fully as possible. You will read and listen to the Lessons and Gospels in the Divine Liturgy, and pray the prayers in the Divine Liturgy, and in so doing will marvel at the completeness of those prayers and the succor they seek for you and offer to you. These are your weapons. These are the source of your strength. These are your training. These are your battle plans. These are the insurance of your success.

Text Box: As often occurs in battle, there may be occasions when you become wounded, when you sin. But even if you are mortally wounded, unlike physical wounds, all of your spiritual wounds can be healed through sacramental confession and absolution. One of the most beautiful and kind things God has done for us is to enable us to be reconciled to Him through confession and absolution when we do succumb to temptation, even if normally it would be a mortal wound. Now, why is there temptation? Ref: 2 Cor. 3:4-9; Gospel Luke 10:23-37 +

Text Box: doing and the avoiding. Chief amongst these are the seven Sacraments. Frequent reception of the Sacraments of Absolution and of Holy Communion should be our foundation in sowing in the spirit. Prayer should be the structure built on that foundation, and the entire work is maintained by doing good works, especially the corporal works of mercy and practicing the virtues. This investment may or may not provide us with the necessities and comforts of this world. Whether or not it does is immaterial, for that is not the reason we make such an investment. We make this investment so that we may have an eternal, permanent, spiritual investment which is not subject to corruption. An investment which can not be lost and which can not be destroyed. An investment both in and founded in God. Ref: Gal. 5:25-26; 6:1-10; Luke 7:11-16 +

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