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

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I’d like to think you were just kidding, that this was a piece of sarcasm, but apparently you aren’t. I can’t imagine you saying that Pope St. John Paul 2 had a ‘narrow view’ of the Church because he grew up in a country occupied by communists, or that Benedict XVI had a narrow view of the Church because he grew up in a country occupied by Nazis in his youth. For pete’s sake, what Pope (and for that matter, how many bishops and cardinals) grew up in countries that weren’t racked by wars, corruption, etc? Even our US had a civil war and a rather poor record of treating immigrants and people of color. And Pope Francis growing up in South America? Shining examples of democracy and freedom there aren’t exactly plentiful in the last decades, but you don’t think that Pope Francis has a narrow view of the Church because he grew up in a country torn by dictatorships, revolutions, and corruption, do you?
 
Dear Yankeesouth,

Thanks so much for posting this! It is a great message especially today on The Feast of Pentecost, when having received the power of the Holy Spirit from on high the Church was sent to all the world and continue to mission of Jesus in overcoming evil with good!

Pope Emeritus (Benedict XVI) said it well:
Today the phrase “ecclesia militans” (The Church Militant) is somewhat out of fashion but in fact we can understand ever more so that it is true, that it contains within it the truth. We see how evil wishes to dominate in the world and that it is necessary to fight against evil. We see that it does so in so many ways: cruelty, through the different forms of violence, but even disguised as good and thereby undermining the moral foundations of society. St Augustine said that all history is a struggle between two loves: love of self to the point of despising God; and love of God to the point of despising oneself, in martyrdom. We are caught up in this struggle. (Speech to the Cardinals, 21 May 2012).
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I took the liberty of inserting the translation from Latin since some may not undertand Latin. The Church Militant is a good phrase and so accurate for fighting the forces of evil in our world today. May Our Mother Mary, whose feast as “Mary, Mother of the Church” will be celebrated tomorrow intercede for us in our day of battle. The beautiful antiphon from the Song of Songs prayed daily by the Legion of Mary comes to mind:
Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?
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Come, Holy Spirit, kindle in us the Fire of Your Love.
Our Lady of Light, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, pray for us!
Jesus we trust in You!
 
“Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 2:3)

"He says, therefore, labor as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. But there are three ways of being a soldier of Christ: first, inasmuch as he fights against sin: ‘the life of man upon earth is a warfare’ (Job 7:1); ‘all the days in which I am now in warfare, I expect until my change come’ (Job 14:14). And this warfare is against the flesh, the world, and the devil: ‘our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places’ (Eph 6:12).

Second, one is a soldier of Christ by fighting against errors: ‘for the weapons of warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God, unto the pulling down of fortifications, destroying counsels’ (2 Cor 10:4).

Third, he (i.g. S. Maximilian Koble, S. Josemaria Escriva) forms part of the militia against tyrants; and this is more laborious: ‘is there any numbering of his soldiers?’ (Job 25:3). And a soldier should not rest, because his name suggests constant warfare." (St. Thomas Aquinas, 2 Tim, Super II ad Timotheu, C. 2, L. 1, 39)

The Angelic Doctor overstated the point in the last sentence of the above citation. For in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, it lists one of the rights of workers is the right to rest. (cf. n. 301) Yet, I believe it was Paul VI, who said that even when we rest, we should rest onto vigilance (John Paul II often slept on a hard floor) . I do not remember where he said it. I do not recall it was in an encyclical.
 
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Pope Francis devotes the entire last section of his recent apostolic exhortation on holiness to spiritual warfare.
 
St John Paul II, traveled outside of Poland often as Bishop.

He participated in Vatican II.

His life experience in the Church was far broader than Bishop Schneider’s was before his family ended up in Germany.

He had no experience on Vatican II and probably had little information about it before he migrated to Germany.

There is no comparing the two and I’m only pointing out what how Bishop Scheider’s remarks come from a narrow place in his experience in the Catholic world.

Jim
 
Spiritual warfare of what takes place between the soul and the desires of the world presented by the evil one.

Jesus’ temptation in the desert is the strongest off all the temptations we as humans endure. What we endure is part of those temptations.

We’re not looking for spiritual warfare against the world of other human beings, who are not Catholic. The military mindset is what fed the bigotry and intolerance of the past.

Jim
 
in your opinion. I hardly think you should be psychoanalyzing a bishop based on your limited knowledge of him, his life, and his intentions in what he wrote.
 
You mean the military mindset which kept the Muslims from invading at Lepanto?

You mean the military mindset which freed the world from the Axis powers?

You mean the military mindset which leads young men and women to learn trades, learn defense, learn how to rescue those in trouble, etc. to this day?

That military mindset?
 
So you want to equate earthly wars with struggles in spirituality ?

Yeah, that’s pretty much the analogy of what the Church used in the past and what Bishop Schneider is using again.

Jim
 
I am saying that the way the bishop speaks can be applied to spiritual or ‘physical’. You’re the one wanting to claim that he’s (edited this per Jim’s request) 'inciting earthly warfare through his images". I notice you didn’t answer my questions either.
 
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I never claimed he’s calling a jihad.

Don’t speak for me, I get myself in enough trouble on my own. 😃

Jim
 
But you have a problem with 'military images" and you still haven’t answered my question about the 'military mindset". What exactly DO you claim the bishop is doing with his ‘images’?
 
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.

Jim
 
You have a problem. Jim, that does not mean that the images are intrinsically wrong. it means that for whatever reason in your own education or preferences, YOU have an idea that ‘peace’ means never thinking about ‘war’ and so you get upset at the idea that maybe, in order to bring peace about, there are times that you’d have to stand up and be willing to defend yourself, to the point of spiritual or even physical earthly death, in order to bring about that peace to the world.

Remember, Jesus loved us so much that in order to save us, He ‘went to war’ with the whole world. . .not just spiritually, in renouncing evil and doing good, but in suffering and death of His physical body.
 
YOU have an idea that ‘peace’ means never thinking about ‘war’
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You presume you know what I think. 😃

Let me be clear, the life in Christ means receiving the peace, joy and love which only He can give.

Peace in Christ isn’t the absence of war and we have plenty of war and violence we hear of daily, that we don’t need more images of it when being taught about living the spiritual life.

Jim
 
YOU keep saying that. How do you presume to know what God may wish people to think and know? Heaven knows that we have enough saints to this day who speak of the need to fight, to make war, and if you insist on applying that image to various unjust wars, then again, that may be something God wants you to work on.

Jim, when we speak of the war on drugs, does it make you imagine bloody battles?

When we speak of a war on poverty, does that invoke ‘bigotry and intolerance’ to you?

When we speak of fighting the demons that lead to hatred and injustice, is that a problem?

Of needing to ‘fight’ lusts, impurities, sin and evil? That to you is just something that makes you NOT think of Christ’s peace, joy, and love? Haven’t you noticed that a lot of people, including (as another poster noted earlier) Pope Francis himself (who certainly, growing up in Argentina, saw a LOT of revolutionary activities, fighting, and hatred) speak of the need for the Christian to be able to fight?

Have you considered that again, where you don’t want others to ‘presume they know what you think’, you are exercising that very action over countless millions of Christians. . .Christians who have fought for Christ, Christians who are fighting for Christ, and Christians who will fight for Christ?

There is a reason we are the Church Militant and not the Church Pacific.
 
And you have still not answered my question about the ‘military mindset’ that you spoke of earlier.
 
I’ve explained my position multiple times in this thread.

You obviously don’t agree, so lets just agree to disagree and move on.

Peace of Christ Be With You

Jim
 
Actually, no you have not. I asked you a specific question about a specific post in which you stated that, We’re not looking for spiritual warfare against the world of other human beings, who are not Catholic. The military mindset is what fed the bigotry and intolerance of the past.

to which I responded You mean the military mindset which kept the Muslims from invading at Lepanto?

You mean the military mindset which freed the world from the Axis powers?

You mean the military mindset which leads young men and women to learn trades, learn defense, learn how to rescue those in trouble, etc. to this day?

That military mindset?

asking you to clarify exactly what you mean by ‘the military mindset’.

You have not done so. You’ve mentioned a lot about peace, love, and joy, but you have not mentioned how this cannot ‘co-exist’ with a need for the Christian to be able to fight, spiritually and physically, against the evils of this world and the spiritual world.

So again, we aren’t agreeing to disagree, you’ve tossed out a bombshell of a so-called ‘military mindset’ that you’re dead against, but you won’t say what it consists of and why ‘military images’ cannot co-exist with the word of Christ, who Himself suffered and died and thus ‘conquered sin and death’.
 
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