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1 Maccabees 6:3-4 "So [Antiochus] came and tried to take the city and plunder it, but he could not because his plan became known to the men of the city and they withstood him in battle. So he fled and in great grief departed from there to return to Babylon."

 

The plan of our enemy is known to us, as well. The Church's teachings, informed by Scripture, and proven by millennia of spiritual warfare, make it perfectly clear that the devil will try any and every means at his disposal to plunder us, to take our souls for his own. If we are not standing against him, ready to do battle, that is our mistake, we have been warned again and again. Even our mother keeps coming to us to give us warnings, asking us to pray and fast to resist the devil.

 

St. James says that if we resist the devil he will flee from us (James 4:7), and he will. If we use the weapons at our disposal, the same ones that Mary implores us to use, we cannot lose against him, he will flee in great grief back to his Babylon. So why do so many fail to resist him, often scoffing at the idea that their city could be plundered? I think this is his influence again. One of evil's great ploys is to not reveal itself for what it is until it is too late. We allow ourselves to become complacent, thinking either that the devil isn't real, or that we are safe because we "follow the rules," and the whole time he is planning, or perhaps even engaged in, his assault. We may be conquered already without even realizing it (although as long as we are alive, there is always time for repentance and salvation).

 

Some have the excuse of never having heard God's Word, so it is easier to understand why they may not realize they have to defend themselves from evil. But those of us who know what the Bible, the prophets, the saints, Mary, the Church, and, most importantly, the Son of God tell us, should know that we are at war with the forces of darkness. We must defend ourselves from the devil. He is always looking for a way to plunder us, but he is powerless to destroy holiness, and he will flee in great grief at our resistance.