The Church’s liturgy celebrates the feast of St. Michael, the Archangel on September 29. His name comes from “Mikael”, which means “Who is like God? “And since no one is like the Almighty, the Archangel fights all those that raise with pride, defying the Almighty. In the Eastern and Western iconography St. Michael, the Archangel is represented, in fact, as a fighter, sword or spear in his hand and the dragon under his feet, symbol of Satan, defeated in battle.

St. Michael is a popular and much venerated Saint. He is mentioned in chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation where he is presented as opponent of the devil and winner of the last battle against Satan and his supporters: “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon (…) The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him”.

In addition to St. Michael, the Church remembers, on the same day, Sts. Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels. The Bible shows the specific missions of each of them: Michael as opponent of Satan, Gabriel as  messenger, and Raphael as healer.

The figure and story of St Michael the Archangel, show a fundamental lesson for every Christian: it is no not enough to do good to really accomplish God’s will but we must also fight evil. We might say that everyone experiences his fight, determined by factors linked to his own personal history, maturity of faith and external influences. The spiritual combat is an inevitable experience in the path of man, it marks the whole of Christian living, it becomes the criterion to verify the authenticity of the  path undertaken, facilitating its progression.

Therefore, becoming true disciples of the Lord means to experience the spiritual battle not as a negative event to be removed, at all costs, or to endure passively, waiting for a quieter time, but as an event of grace, where we are called to fight, put in place the best of ourselves and accept the defeat with an attitude of faith, recognizing our limits, learning to persevere and hope.

Luisa also had to pass through a terrible ordeal, fighting the demons! A battle that she didn’t fight alone, because Jesus was her strength. It was not her that suffered, but Jesus Himself suffered within her. He wanted to test her faithfulness. He wanted to purify her soul from every slightest spot which might hinder Jesus’ love within her.

That’s why Jesus put her in the midst of demons. He gave them freedom to torment her and to tempt her, so that after having fought the virtues with the opposite vices, she already found herself in possession of those very virtues which she thought she were losing. And then her soul, purged, embellished, enriched, will be like a king returning victorious from a most fierce war, who, while he thought he would lose what he possessed, comes back more glorious and filled with immense riches. Then Jesus will form her dwelling

Therefore, Spiritual warfare, takes place and is consumed inside man’s soul, in his heart, meaning the most profound and intimate place where only God comes. God Himself has made of our hearts his dwelling, even if often He looks sick and in need of healing. Only the Lord can purify the heart from all evil and light it with the fire of his love.

Jesus says to Luisa that He never puts souls in battles so that they may perish; first He measures their strengths, He gives them His  grace, and then He puts them in. And if some souls fall, it is because they do not remain united to Him by means of prayer; no longer feeling the sensitivity to His love, they go begging for love from the creatures, whileHe alone can satiate the human heart.

The thing that an adversary army fears the most is to see courage, strength, and the way in which one challenges the most dangerous fights, without fearing anything. So the demons are; there is nothing they fear more than a courageous soul who, all clinging to God, with a strong spirit, goes into their midst, not to be wounded, but with the firm resolution of wounding them and exterminating them. The demons are frightened, terrified, and would rather flee; but they cannot, because they are bound by the Divine Will, and they are forced to stay, to their greater torment.

The fight makes our life an always active laboratory where, with the help of the divine grace, we are called to work on ourselves, on our feelings, on all those inner movements that we often find it hard to identify and circumscribe, all for increasingly shaping our lives, our thoughts, our feelings on those of Jesus.

Carmela Quaranta

Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!

The parable faithfully portrays a reality to which we have become accustomed: a large part of humanity lives in a carefree state of wealth, next to another part  that even hasn’t the means of subsistence. We must not get moralistic reliefs from the text: we cannot deduct that the rich man was spotted with nefarious deeds, nor the poor is morally irreproachable. Simply, the  rich man enjoys considerable wealth, and doesn’t take care of the poor knocking at his door, whereas the poor man is consumed by his misery. Where the sensitivity of men does not arrive, there is the company of animals that try to alleviate the suffering of the poor as nature taught them.

The scene changes drastically with the death of both. For the poor, it is the beginning of a new life (“bosom of Abraham” means the fullness of life after death), whereas for the rich there is the lapidary seal (“buried”) of a life dissipated in secondary things. At that point everything is clear to the rich man who wasn’t fully converted yet, so much so that he twice asks Abraham to use Lazarus as his personal slave (first to bring a drop of water, and then to go to his brothers). In the rich man there is our opulent society consecrated to material goods, we are there. Moses, the prophets, Jesus, in short, the Bible, remind us  the meaning of our path in this world, we must be close to those who have received less than us and be solicitous over charity and justice.

One day Jesus said to Luisa that there is no order without subjection; the rich have subtracted themselves from God, and the peoples rebel against God, against the rich, and against everyone. The scale of God’s Justice is full, and He can no longer contain it.

The gospel gives us a strong message as we encounter in everyday life situations of poverty, marginalization and misery. Indeed, we can say that if the word of God is always valid, it describes in detail the reality of today’s world, where a small part of humanity lives in consumerism and waste whereas  the greater part  of humanity lives in poverty.

For a long time now, the social doctrine of the Church has invited us to become aware of the real problems of the world and to realize a Christian commitment, which is not limited to some charity, but tries to go to the causes of inequality, injustice, exploitation, through works of sharing and solidarity. A situation which is already so  serious is compounded now by the worrying problems of these days.

The Word of God shows us the way for our conversion. Paul urges us to become truly men and women of God, people who are believers that follow the path of justice and tend, with the desire and concrete choices, toward piety, faith, love, patience, clemency. These attitudes certainly contrast with the position of those who, bolstered by their wealth, consider themselves “upright” and faultless.

We must follow what the Bible tells us, “People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish….. Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them..”

The warning that the Lord Jesus addresses to us through the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, is not only a matter of social justice, purely human. It is a reality that touches the depths of our faith and our destiny in eternity. “… For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.“, Saint Paul reminds us in his letter to the Galatians. We will deserve Paradise  to the extent that we have shared our things and our lives with our brothers and sisters in need: “I was an hungred, I was thirsty… Come, you who are blessed by my Father; “(Mt. 25). On the contrary, the Bible says that the lot of the wicked will be terrible.

This is an invitation for us to strive for justice, as men and believers, knowing that the common good, solidarity and peace are the dream of God the Father for humanity. It is an invitation to become men and women of hope who truly believe in the power of the Word of the Lord, the one Word that will decide the lot of the world.

The love for the poor, as Jesus taught to Luisa, is the sign to recognize those who experience the true charity.

Who loves the rich and is available for them, he may do so because he hopes for something or obtains something, or because he is in sympathy with them, or because of their nobility, intelligence, eloquence, and even out of fear. But if he loves the poor, helps them, supports them, it is because he sees in them the image of God, therefore he does not look at roughness, ignorance, rudeness, misery.

Through those miseries, as though through a glass, he sees God, from whom he hopes for everything; and so he loves them, helps them, consoles them as if he were doing it to God Himself. This is the good kind of true virtue, which begins from God and ends in God. On the other hand, that which begins from matter, produces matter and ends in matter. As bright and virtuous as charity may appear, if the divine touch is not felt, both the one who does it and the one who receives it become bothered, annoyed and tired, and if necessary, they even use it to commit defects.”

don Marco