Bishop Schneider: Christians Are Spiritual Soldiers Who Belong to an Army of Victors

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Military references is what I’m referring to.

I don’t need to say more.

Those who can hear will hear, those who can’t won’t.

Jim
 
OK, Jim, I’m not going to keep at this. Like you, I think that people have had eyes to see and ears to hear. But because this has gone on for a while, I think now is a good time to show the bishop’s actual words from the first part of his talk, and show them in context.

The first references are taken from Vatican 2; the second directly from the Bible, New Testament to boot.

The Second Vatican Council teaches us: “The whole of man’s history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity” (Gaudium et spes, 37). This dramatic situation of “the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one” (1 Jn 5:19; cf. 1 Pet 5:8) makes man’s life a battle (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 409).

The Word of God teaches us: “Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art called” (1 Tim. 6:12). The Christian life is indeed a warfare. Saint Paul wrote that “we wrestle” against the powers of darkness. “Our battle is not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
 
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I personally do not connect with Auxiliary Bishop Schneider’s style or rhetoric. I find his emphasis to be overly alarmist and gloomy… not my preference…

Plus, I find it alarming that he spends a lot of time giving interviews to fringe outfits like Rorate Caeli and the Remnant… these bloggers really only focus on sowing the seeds of division and fanning the flames to be sure the sparks of division turn in to fires… really unfortunate to lend credibility to those rags

I find it ironic that most vocal about supposed ambiguities in Pope Francis’ teaching - Schneider, Burke, etc - speak in such veiled and passive aggressive terms when attempting to criticize the Pope. Funny, how they criticize ambiguity and employing ambiguos language to do so.
 
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JimR-OCDS said:
I have a problem using war and military images in teaching spirituality when we’re trying to tell people about the peace and joy Jesus brings into our lives.
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You are entitled to your opinion, but it’s one I had to put up with for many of my formative years because the generation about 10 years older than me (the “hippies”) were constantly pushing it.

Coming from a family where I had a dad who fought in two wars, several other relatives who were either veterans or who were killed in action, and a mom who worked for one of the military branches in DC, as well as my husband and I working for many years for a defense contractor in the past and interacting with military people all day long, I don’t share your bias against military language.

I imagine a lot of other people who see the military as generally being defenders of what’s right and good and being a peacekeeping force don’t share your view either.

We will likely never come to agreement on this, as it’s similar to how I see police officers as generally friendly and nice people because I had a few of them in my family and I am aware of how they think through my work, whereas someone whose experience with the police involves threats, beatings, and the cops showing up to take their daddy away is going to have a totally different view.
 
Spiritual warfare is a thing. Jesus did say that He would bring the sword not peace.
 
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