Our Spiritual Battles

We suffer from our vices, and try to struggle with them, and the reason for this struggle is that we are not perfect. But our salvation is in the struggle with vices, and if God were to take away our ability to fight our vices, then we would be left with them forever.

Blaise Pascal Cited in Calendar of Wisdom

There is a lot to say about this quote! What strikes me most directly, is not the idea that we have vices that we need the grace of God to allay or defeat, it is the whole idea that there is a divine struggle that has to be engaged or encountered. It is through our willingness to engage in this noble and alchemical struggle that we find ourselves closer to whatever we consider to be holy or divine in our own essence and simultaneously in our intimate connection to God.

I was given the term, ”psychomachia” or the ongoing and necessary battle for one’s soul… Without being melodramatic, life is a struggle; if not targeted to our vices, it can be aimed at how we encounter the corporate sins of our culture, or the accumulated tendencies of our ancestral patterns… some or all of the above! We are always being tested and tried, and if you prefer standing with Jacob at Jabbok, or in the prison cell with Paul, seeking our release or at least our next steps in our salvation!(wholeness)

I am reminded of MLK Jr’s prayer of acknowledgement of this ongoing battle. He asked God not to be released from sin, temptations, trials etc., but to be given the strength, courage, and perseverance to meet those daunting and difficult challenges; to meet them with peaceful actions, and with a determined resolve to act for the sake of freedom and justice…

The spiritual life, as I have understood it, requires both the seeking after wisdom and the comprehension of “the deep calling to the deep”. It also requires a willingness to release and reduce any ego eccentricities we have, or harbor, as our personal cherished or reinforced definitions of who and what we are as individuals.

This battle is an interfaith, universal theme in all the great religions, and especially prominent in the spiritual quest within the mystical and prophetic pathways that are generally hidden in all the great religious traditions. Whether we speak of the Bhagavad Gita battles or St. John’s dark nights, there is a psychic battle to be fought; and there are obstacles to overcome that would repair our separation from God, and our intimacy to be won/realized.