The Christian life can be defined as directing the soul to God, to Eternity. But directing means walking forward; and through effort, progress. But the effort and the progress, suppose struggle, violence, and fighting. The life of men on the earth is assuredly a fight. Energy is the first character of the Christian. All true Christians must be strong and generous.
But, in the times in which we live, souls are afflicted with a terrible weakness: weakness in the young man who soon becomes the victim and slave of his passions; weakness in the mature man who is sensitive to human respect and incapable of asserting his convictions; weakness in the family where duty, respect, obedience, and love are unknown. Indifference ices the heart, incredulity invades the spirit, the current of passion drives the will; because souls do not know how to resist this torrent of demoralization, scepticism, and impiety which flows in abundance and against which society is not protected.
Saint Michael will give us the strength and bravery. According to interpreters, the strong angel seen by Saint John in the Apocalypse is Saint Michael. He has been a glorious champion for the rights of God against Lucifer; far from being dazzled by the luminous prestige of the superb angel, far from being won over by the great number of rebellious spirits, he proclaimed in the face of heaven his fidelity and submission; he found in his heart this cry, the true and final word of the valiant angels: who is like God?
For us, temptation is everywhere. It is in prestige of the sonorous words sown around us; in these doctrines of nothingness and voluptuousness everywhere prone to be exclaimed; in the doubts and negations of the order of life; in the permanent seduction of the great number of those who refuse to believe and adore; in the pride and in the frenzied desire to enjoy or pervert so many wills.
Let us go to Saint Michael and look to him.
He was strong because he believed. The Faith is a source of strength. It is written in the Holy Bible as a triumphant affirmation, a promise full of hope: Faith brings victory.
He was strong, because he dwells in humility. He humbled himself before the glimpse of Christ, and God gave him His grace. Lucifer, on the contrary, refused to bend his knee; but that was the cause of his loss. God resisted him, as He always resists the proud. The humble man is strong: he has the help that God always gives to the humble.
We have the example of Saint Michael; we also have his protection, and his intercession which is so close to God. Let us rise for the glorious fight for the Faith and for virtue. With the help of Saint Michael, we will vanquish, and we will conquer and receive the glorious destiny which is the recompense of the brave. “Be strong in the battle, fight against the ancient serpent, and you will come into possession of the eternal kingdom.”
Practice: To have strength, let us draw from its source: prayer and the Sacraments.
