Why We Lose in Spiritual Combat

Everyone wants to go to war against the Devil. But no one is battling his ally

“He who doesn’t know how to conquer himself is the greatest enemy to himself. For in this victory consists the perfection of the soul, and without it all other victories are vain.”
— Lorenzo Scupoli

Spiritual combat isn’t mainly about fighting demons. It’s about fighting the part of us that keeps siding with them.

The most dangerous enemy isn’t outside of ourselves, but within: it’s the will that refuses discipline, the pride that resists correction, and the comfort that dodges or rejects sacrifice, and so on. It’s our disordered passions, whether sinful or not. These fronts mark the drama of the interior battlefield. Yet most of us don’t pay enough attention.

The Devil’s Ally

St. Francis de Sales makes the same point from another angle. When writing about the three sources of temptation—the world, the flesh, and the devil—De Sales insists that the most dangerous of the three is the flesh. The world can onlysuggest, and the devil can only tempt from outside of ourselves, but the flesh (the self) cooperates with them both.

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The devil doesn’t tempt us with his own material. He doesn’t create our disordered desires; he studies them and exploits them. What the world offers as an occasion for sin, the will must still accept; what the devil prompts, the will must assent to. This is why self-conquest (or self mastery) matters more than demon-hunting. The devil has no power over a soul, but the soul’s willingness to indulge what needs to be disciplined is the real breach in the wall. THe threat isn’t the tempter’s voice, but the interior consent that answers it.

“Open the gates!”

“Right away!”

Like an Epic Movie

We tend to imagine warfare as something visible and heroic. But the battle Scupoli is pointing to is quiet and interior.

This is why the interior spiritual combat seems flat, boring, or less worthy of our attention. Yet this is where the battle is primarily fought and where the war is primarily won. It’s more exciting than a scene in Braveheart, even if you can’t watch it.

There are no banners, no trumpets or clashing swords, and no cheering audience. But God, the angels and the saints are watching this all play out, and they love a good fight. You’ll get the play-by-play at Judgement, so this life is your opportunity to make it an epic. They are cheering for you.

Rule, or Be Ruled

A man who can’t rule himself is already ruled. A Christian who can’t say no to himself won’t last long saying yes to God.

We don’t lose the spiritual war simply by being attacked. We lose it by cooperating—by excusing what should be corrected, by calling weakness “personality,” or by calling passions “authenticity.” The battlefield isn’t always the world, it’s more often the self. Satan is already conquered by the Blood of Christ—the serpent was outdone by the Lamb. So our victory has to be over the self.

Deny yourself. Don’t just resist temptation, push against it by practicing virtue. Don’t just say “No” to sinful impulses, resist the non-sinful ones too, every once in a while. It strengthens the will.

Be masters of yourselves. Because the person who has self mastery is the one who, in conquering the self, leaves the devil unemployed

God be with you all!
-TJ

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