Rematch!

Or More Spiritual Paintball!

A little while back, I gave a talk on the Armour of God ("Who We Are Instead" pt.4: History Makers). After going Paintballing last Thursday, that passage in Ephesians took on some new relevance for me, so I'm going to revisit the topic--thus the title, "Rematch"

Ephesians 6:10-18

Finally, grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of His power. Put on the full armour of God so as to be able to resist the devil's tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the principalities and the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world, the spirits of evil in the heavens. That is why you must take up all God's armour, or you will not be able to put up any resistance on the evil day, or stand your ground even though you exert yourselves to the full.
So stand your ground, with truth a belt round your waist, and uprightness a breastplate, wearing for shoes on your feet the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace [Is 59:17;40:9] and always carrying around the shield of faith so that you can use it to quench the burning arrows of the Evil One. And then you must take salvation as your helmet and the sword of the Spirit, that is, the word of God.
In all your prayer and entreaty keep praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all God's holy people.

When we went paintballing, we were given equipment not unlike the armour that St. Paul writes about. They outfitted us with a helmet/mask, a gun, and a coloured pad that went around our neck and hung down in front and back, that distinguished what team we were on (and dulled considerably the impact of the paintball hitting our chest). They also warned us that we should be wearing adequate footgear, because the ground was slippery from paint all over.

Playing paintball, the rules were clear. If you weren't adequately suited up, if you took your helmet off, you were suspended for a game. If you did it again, you were kicked out! This is because of the absolute necessity for this equipment! You could be seriously injured, or even blinded, without your helmet!

Compare that to the Spiritual Life:
The armour that St. Paul is describing is probably that of the Roman soldiers that he saw every day as he sat in prison. Each piece has an important function, and so he attributed each piece to a part of Christian spirituality. He calls it "God's armour" because he didn't actually come up with the idea. About 500 years earlier, the prophet Isaiah used the same metaphor, describing God Himself suiting up for battle! The thing is, St. Paul says, is that the Armour that God Himself uses to wage war against the Devil, is the same armour He gives to each of us!

So what does God give us?
Truth a belt round your waist. In Roman armour, the belt was used to hold the armour in place, so that in battle, it wouldn't get moved around, leaving gaps and chinks that would leave the soldier vulnerable. This is why it's compared to Truth. The Truth is what keeps us grounded, focused, and sure. Many people today want to deny any such objective truth, preferring to say that whatever works for them is true for them, and we can't impose our morals and values on them...blahblahblah. What that gets you is a wishy-washy soup that in the end doesn't really mean anything. Jesus offers us stability and surety. And from that stability, we base the rest of our lives, our faith and our works.

Our belt holds our breastplate of uprightness in place. Many things in this world make our righteousness seem outdated, saying that morals need to change. Abortion, gay marriage, sex, drug use, and a host of other things in this world seem up for grabs, and we can be tempted to start thinking, "Oh well, it's not that bad!" But when our morals, our righteousness, is held in place by the Truth of Christ, we avoid that attitude!

This fact was demonstrated to me in Paintball. Of all the equipment they supply, a belt is not included. In one game, I was crouching, and getting shot at. The position I was in caused that breastplate-thing to shift to the right, leaving the left part of my chest exposed. One unfortunate paintball happened to nail me square in the nipple! As I recoiled from the pain, another shot hit me right in the thigh! Let me tell you, they hurt! A belt would have held the armour in place, and (while, according to the rules, I'd still be out) I wouldn't have the bruises I have still today!

After the breastplate, St. Paul mentions wearing for shoes on your feet the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace. Wearing the right shoes is very important--especially paintballing! With the greasy paint all over the walls and floor, it's incredibly easy to slip, leaving yourself vulnerable to attack, or worse, causing yourself injury as you tumble down stairs! One girl who came with us wore flip-flop sandals, and opted out of participating because the staff warned her of how unsafe they would be. I wore hiking boots and had a hard enough time staying stable and mobile! At one point I was running for cover, slipped, and took a shot to the top of my head!

Spiritually, we need to be eager to spread the good news of Jesus--but we also need to be prepared. While the NJB (quoted above) describes the shoes as the "eagerness" to spread the gospel, most other translations use the term "preparation" of the gospel. I think the two ideas have to go together. More, I think we need to be equipped with the right shoes for the right situation. You wouldn't try to reach out to a Muslim after boning up on your reasons why atheism is wrong! You wouldn't try to convert a Mormon by telling him why Hinduism is wrong! Many people train themselves to defend the faith against specific opponents. It makes them highly effective against them, perhaps, but not so much against some other belief system or ideology. Personally, I think it's better to be wearing CrossTrainers. Knowing your own faith, why it's true and real, is more effective than demonstrating why the other is false! Bankers are taught to recognise counterfeit bills not by researching counterfeiting techniques, but by studying the real thing! We should have the same mentality, and be prepared to share our faith with others.

But we should also be eager, not timid. The Gospel means "Good News"! Why are we gonna keep that to ourselves? Don't be discouraged or frightened. God is with you!

The shield of faith. Ohh how I wish I had one of those paintballing! The referees got them--the cool, clear riot gear kind! A shield is the first line of defence in the armour. Is it any wonder St. Paul equates it to faith? Our faith is our response to God's grace, and opens the door to our salvation! Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith, it is impossible to please God! With faith, we can hold firm to our beliefs, even in the face of challenges. The shield works jointly with the breastplate because you won't always be able to get the shield in front, and the breastplate can take those blows. But you won't stand under too many. Likewise, our faith has to be the motivation for our good works. Doing good works without faith as a motive leads to spiritual exhaustion and apathy. Having faith without those good works, and any shot that gets past faith will strike a killing blow!

Salvation as your helmet. Do not take your helmet off! In the spiritual life, it can be a little worse than sitting out for a game! Salvation equals life--that's why it has the illustrious position of helmet. Our head is arguably the most vital organ in our body, and is rather irreplaceable! So is God's Saving Grace! It keeps us in the game!

The Sword of the Spirit. Paintballing without a gun is really no fun at all. It's not much better with a gun but no ammo! You're kind of, well, ineffective to put it mildly. The Word of God is our weapon. We need to know the Word thoroughly, in order to use it effectively! That is why we must study the Bible, pay attention in Mass, and listen to the Church's teachings. These comprise the Word of God for us: Scripture, Tradition, and the Church. They reveal and interpret God's Truth to us. Remember that Belt? This is how we put it on! Knowing the Word is like being a sniper in paintballing. Targeting someone and shooting them across the room before they even know where you are! This is how Jesus used the Word in Matthew 4, when He was being tempted by the Devil. His knowledge of God's Word was so intimate that He could throw it out there to counter every attack and temptation of the Enemy until he had to leave in utter frustration! We need to come to know Jesus that intimately. We need to know His Word that thoroughly!

Finally, all your prayer is an effective weapon as well. God listens and answers, and fights on our behalf! "Never get[ting] tired of staying awake to pray for all God's holy people" is like laying down cover fire, driving back the Enemy so that others can move in and storm the gates! We are not alone in this fight, and all of us need to work together, as God's Church, to combat the spiritual forces in this world!

So suit up, step out, and wage war!
And fer cryin' out loud, Leave your armour on!

God bless!

Spiritual Paintball

So, Thursday the Youth Group went Paintballing, and we had a great time, getting shot--a lot. It was kinda painful, and not quite what I expected. Only a small few of us had ever been before, but we weren't alone. We didn't rent the facility, so there were others there, and those others obviously made paintballing a large part of their lives. You could tell when they walked in with a small case, opened it up, and screwed together a paintball gun that very closely resembled an M-16 Assault Rifle. Intimidating to say the least. But as I said, we had a lot of fun. I was thinking about the experience, and saw, as I tend to do, many parallels between paintballing and our Spiritual Life.

As I considered the night, I realised there was a very sharp and distinct line drawn between those that were really good, and those that...well, weren't. So I tried to discern what made an effective killing machi...er...paintball player, and concluded on three qualities:

1. Effective paintballers are the ones with the really big guns. Well, maybe not necessarily big guns, but they were the ones who owned their own gun. They knew it, what it felt like, how it worked, and most importantly, what it was capable of.

By contrast, most of us had never seen a paintball gun before, and had enough trouble figuring out how to switch the safety off so that we could actually shoot.

2. Effective paintballers are the ones who do it a lot. By that, I mean that some of them seemed to play professionally, or at least wish they could. They were experienced, knowing the strategies, surroundings, and techniques to be the most effective.

This was a stark contrast with the rest of us, shooting wildly without any target or goal.

3. Effective paintballers are the ones who would go all out. They were not hiding in fear, but boldly attacking. They knew their weapons, they knew their surroundings, and they knew their gameplan. And they just did it, not worrying about the paintballs whizzing past them.

Then there were us newbies, cowering in a corner screaming in fear!

Seeing those differences, who do you think woulda won?!

So as I reflected on these three qualities, I saw how they applied to our lives as Christians. St. John saw the same thing, in his Revelation. In Chapter 12, verses 10 and 11, he writes, "Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, 'Salvation and power and empire for eveer and ever have been won by our God, and all authority for His Christ, now that the accuser, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down. They have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, the word to which they bore witness, because even in the face of death they did not cling to life.'"

So how do the Saints overcome the Devil?

1. Effective Christians are the ones who own and use the Ultimate Weapon. The Blood of the Lamb is the mightiest weapon in the Christian arsenal. Through Christ's death on the Cross, our sins are forgiven, we are made completely new creatures, and Satan is defeated! But just like we had to continually monitor and reload ammo into our guns, we continually need to bring ourselves before the Altar, to appropriate Christ's Blood to our lives. In the Eucharist, we receive His Body and Blood, through Communion with Him. He gives us the Grace and the Strength to stand against the enemy!

2. Effective Christians are the ones who walk often and closely with God. By that, I mean we must live out the Relationship with God that Christ purchased for us on the Cross. Revelation 12:11 gives the second weapon as "the word to which they bore witness." In order to bear witness to something, you need to have experienced it. We need to stay close to Christ, to dwell in His Sacred Heart. When we know the Power of Christ in our lives, then we can be able to tell others. This is strategic in a number of ways: 1-We won't be sinning when we're with Him. 2-Others will hear about His wonderful love and hopefully believe. 3-The Devil is defeated as he loses more and more souls back to God! But we need to develop and walk in that Relationship, and we need to be willing to share it...no matter what!

3. Effective Christians are the ones who would go all out. The final part of the verse is that those saints who defeat Satan are the ones who are willing to suffer and even to die for Christ. We need to be willing to step out and stand up against the Big Bad. All over the world and throughout history, the Church that is strongest is the one that is suffering persecution. Looking at the world today we see it in China, in the Middle East, and more. In the Ancient Church, this principle was so evident that one church leader, Tertullian, remarked that "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Here and now, we aren't facing the same kind of persecution--though the way things are going in this country, I'm not sure it's too far off! But we need to be careful in our comfortable society, that we don't become fat, flabby couch-potato Christians! We need to be willing to play a reckless game of Spiritual Paintball! We need to be willing to step out in faith.

Jesus tells us, "If anyone wants to be a follower of Mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow Me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for My sake will find it." --Matthew 16:24-25

Being a Christian can hurt. But as the Gallino-meister said at paintball, "Hey, no pain, no gain, right?"

Jesus would agree.