Bourbon with a Sermon

In old frontier towns the first ones to set up shop were whiskey sellers and preachers. Today, when neighborhoods are dying, the last places to shut down are liquor stores and churches. There has to be a moral in that demographic footnote.

Perhaps the moral is that eagerness to start and reluctance to depart are characteristics of powers of evil, but they're also characteristics of powers for good. Every spiritually beleagured person feels like the rope in a tug-of-war, being pulled one direction by an enemy bent on the person's downfall, and pulled in the other direction by a spiritual ally dedicated to the person's upbuilding. Intensity of purpose on both sides is what makes all spiritual warfare so ferocious and exhausting.

In the heat of spiritual combat, it's easy to forget that our battle has already been won - on Calvary twenty centuries ago. Our present struggle is mainly our faith-effort to claim the already won victory over the forces of evil: "You, dear chldren, are from God and have overcome them, because the one that is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 Jn 4:4).

We can overcome, not by fighting, but by resisting: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you" (Jas 4:7-8). One bumper sticker says it quite aptly: "If you feel far from God, guess who moved!"

This excerpt is from the book One-Minute Meditations for Busy People, by John H. Hampsch, C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/video recordings can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408 or www.Catholicbooks.net