An excerpt from the First Reading from today’s Mass:
Genesis 32: 25, 31:
Jacob was left there alone. Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.
Jacob named the place Peniel, “Because I have seen God face to face,” he said, “yet my life has been spared.”
The “some man” was an angel of the Lord, a representative of God. And perhaps, to Jacob, enough for his comments in verse 31. He wrestled with an emissary of God and did not lose.
We all wrestle with things. If you are a reader of this blog, you probably wrestle quite often with the urge to drink. Like Jacob, you might be wrestling with the urge for a long time, and it might feel as if you are wrestling with God, or a powerful angel.
As a matter of fact, you might be. You may be wrestling with an angel not of God, but one that turned it’s back on God. In other words Satan or one of his demons.
The existence of demons is still taught in the Church and such teaching is shared with the Jews and Muslims. It is not a medieval fairy tale that parents use to frighten their children in order to be good. Satan’s greatest victory after the Fall of Adam is the general conviction that he is a myth. You don’t defend yourself or be vigilant against a myth.
If Satan is aware of your struggles with alcohol, or any other addiction, he may make it more difficult for you. Sometimes interior promptings are not of God, or your Guardian Angel, they may be suggestion planted in you by one who wishes to see you destroyed. He knows that you are struggling to stop drinking (or stay stopped) and embark upon whatever mission God has planned for you. We are all born for a reason. God has a plan for each one of us. Addiction gets in the way and derails that plan.
So wrestle. You needn’t wrestle alone. Call upon the help of Jesus and the saints in Heaven. Despite the number of prayer requests they get, they can handle them all as they have all eternity to answer them (not that our prayers will be answered a thousand years from now). Time is mysterious on the other side. Just pray, hope and don’t worry. You have plenty of help in your wrestling match.
The Destroyer has no chance.
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