I was listening to talk radio (code for Right wing extremism) in the car the other day. This is my usual fare when not listening to the fundy preachers and country gospel music.
The guy said he was ‘a happy warrior’. It stuck in my mind when reading the epistle today at Mass from Ephesians about putting on the whole armor of God and fighting against principalities and powers and ‘the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places.’ I love that passage–especially at this most supernatural time of the Church year.
Tomorrow is Halloween when we admit that we are fighting against the monsters of the deep, the Leviathan, that great Serpent the Devil, the goblins, the ghoulies, the ghosts and things that go bump in the night. Then we worship with all the saints the next day and sing ‘for all the saints’ in triumphant procession. Next day we pray for the holy souls and offer the sacrifice for their benefit, then through the whole month of November we pray for the dead.
It is like a rich spiritual and supernatural harvest as well as a battlefield. Our weapons are the harvest scythe and sword of the spirit both.
This ‘happy warrior’ battle talk is what makes the faith vital and real for me, and I realize that the perhaps the greatest fault of the modern church is that it has lost the desire or the need to be the church militant. The church has become feminized, emasculated and undone. The great Church militant has become like a soppy old Labrador–only interested in another tidbit and rolling over to have her tummy scratched.
As we head into November and Advent, I’m for a renewal of the battle, a stronger commitment to the spiritual warfare and
Great post Father.
Begging pardon, but our lab retriever is definitely NOT “soppy”, but very much a warrior!! We’ve never seen his belly. On the other hand, his “brother”, a huge Great Pyrenees, whose size strikes fear in all who meet him, is a total wuss. His belly is nearly always available for a scratch. Political ramifications: Never judge the interior by the exterior…and vice verse!
Erm, Father, what’s with the big “bandwidth theft detected” gray box where the photo is supposed to be? Have you got some sort of malware on your computer? (I’m sure not following the links to the site it mentions!)
Sheepcat:it won’t be Malware. It’ll be because Father just linked to the image, rather than copying it.
so doesn’t the image show up for some people when I link to the address rather than copying it?
I may be the only person here old enough to remember Hubert Humphrey, the ‘happy warrior.’I think Wordsworth invented the term. Father may be able to confirm that Wordsworth was an Englishman.
You’re right it’s time for men to stand up and be warriors for Christ, and stop looking at the culture to show them what a real Man is. When a community activist can challenge a decorated war hero for the job of the most powerful position in the world, there is something wrong with the culture.
Surely, Father, the original “Happy Warrior” was Al Smith, the first Catholic to run for President? But wasn’t he a Democrat? There is a certain unintentional comedy produced by those who have forgotten their history!
Speaking of forgotten history, I’m pretty sure Wordsworth was thinking of Al Smith when he coined the term….assuming he did.Coin the term, that is.
I’ll sign up for the Vanguard troops!