The Church Militant means our Church, here and now.
There’s a battle raging, and we’re all part of it, like it or not. The growing intensity of the Culture War that’s engulfing our society is just a surface manifestation. The real war has been underway since Satan was cast out of Heaven. In my recent post on St. Ignatius Loyola we looked at the idea of being a “Soldier for Christ”.
This is not simply an analogy. In fact, we could argue that the wars we fight in this world are the images of the great eternal combat, the true war, between the army of God and the forces of the Devil . . .
“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” -attributed to Leon Trotsky
There’s a battle raging, and we’re all part of it, like it or not. The growing intensity of the Culture War that’s engulfing our society is just a surface manifestation of the real war that’s been underway since Satan was cast out of Heaven. In my recent post on St. Ignatius Loyola we looked at the idea of being a “Soldier for Christ”. This is not simply an analogy; in fact, we could argue that the wars we fight in this world are the images of the great eternal combat, the true war, between the army of God and the forces of the Devil.
The Church Triumphant
The term Church Militant expresses the understanding that waging this spiritual war is our primary occupation on earth. The Church Militant is one part of a traditional tripartite division of the Communion of Saints, which is the Church throughout time: the Church Milititant (those of us still living in this world), the Church Penitent (the souls in Purgatory), and the Church Triumphant (those Christians in the presence of God in Heaven). “Militant” means “soldiering” in Latin. Being a Christian in this life means being on the front lines. Just as in a modern army there are as many as ten support troops for every front line soldier with his rifle, so in the Communion of Saints the Church Penitent and the Church Triumphant have our back.
It is also true that for every officer there are numerous enlisted soldiers. We can see parallells in the Church Triumphant. There are many saints who have played a large leadership role in the life of the Church, and who are well-known to most Catholics (although not as familiar as they once were). St. Clare of Assisi, whose feast we celebrate today [August 11th], is one of these officers of the Church Triumphant. If we look at the list of saints for today’s date at catholic.org, however, we’ll find fourteen other canonized saints who share the feast day with her. These are the enlisted men and women among the canonized saints, whose names and stories we may not know, but who all played their part in the eternal war. They all intercede for us still, and their lives can serve as model and inspiration.
St. Equitius
One of those fourteen foot soldiers of the Church Triumphant who has his feast day today is St. Equitius, whose story is told by Pope St. Gregory the Great in his Dialogues. It seems Equitius was one of those holy men and women who sought a life solitude with The Lord by living as a hermit. As is often the way, the hermit’s sanctity attracted a growing number of followers, whom he eventually organized into a formal monastic establishment at Terni. Despite the leadership role that was thrust upon him Equitius never received priestly ordination. His lack of holy orders prompted complaints, and so the Pope sent a priest, a certain Julian, to investigate. Before Julian’s investigation reached a conclusion, however, the issue was settled by the Pope himself, who was prompted by a vision to bestow his blessing upon the saint. By the time of his death in 570 Equitius had founded a number of monasteries.
There is something very inspiring about the story of St. Equitius that resonates beyond his time and place. We have the individual believer, Equitius, who through his “reputation for sanctity” draws more people out of the world and into the Church, and strengthens the faith of those who already believe. He models the mission given to all Christians to sanctify the world. He is a layman, however, and some people are afraid that he is straying into territory rightly reserved for ordained clergy. The Pope, who embodies the clergy’s threefold mission of sanctifying, governing, and teaching investigates; under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he gives his assent and support to St. Equitius’ holy work.
This is a nice illustration, I think, of a couple of simple but important ideas. First, we are all called to sanctity and to mission. At the same time, we all have different roles, and we need to respect the individual missions God has entrusted to each of us. There is a lot of confusion in recent years about the importance of preserving, and observing, these important distinctions. Sometimes the laity’s call to holiness is misunderstood to mean that lay people should be moving into the sanctuary and acting more like priests, who are in turn expected to behave more like the laity.
The Church Militant (detail from featured image top of page)
But that’s not how it’s supposed to work. Above I compared the Church Triumphant to an army, with the great saints the officers and the more obscure saints the common soldiers. The analogy applies even more fittingly to the Church Militant, the “soldiering” Church here on earth. Here the bishops and priests are the officers, who train us lay people and lead us into battle; we are the common soldiers who apply our “training” to the fight on the front lines, i.e., in the world. If instead we try to knock our general off his horse and hop up in his place, we are really fighting for the enemy. The army is only successful when everyone carries out his or her own assigned mission within the chain of command.
Saint Equitius understood that his mission to sanctify the world by living a life of holiness and attracting others to that life was more importasnt than his desire for solitude, and likewise he did not seek for himself the authority or status of the priesthood. His superior officer, the Pope, yielded to higher authority when he suspended his own investigation after receiving a dispatch from Supreme Headquarters ordering him to give his blessing to the saint. We all serve our Lord best when we are faithful to the role we have been given. That’s a good lesson for all of us.
Featured image top of page: Blessed is the Host of the King of Heaven (alternatively known as Church Militant). Russian icon, ca. 1550 – 1560. Tretyakov Gallery.
I haven’t been able to find out the source of the image of The Church Triumphant that appears in the body of the article above. I welcome any information on the artist or location.
“Whose Standard?” That is the question posed by St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. But first, would I be out of line to say that the Society of Jesus is not what it used to be? I don’t want to be a Jebbie basher: I have studied under and worked with many Jesuits over the years. I have liked most of them, even admired a few. There are a few Jesuits in public life who are eloquent expositors and defenders of the faith as handed on by the Apostles. Fr.s Fessio and Pacwa, for instance, and Fr. Schall before he passed away several years ago come to mind.
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
(Galatians 2:20)
These Jesuit defenders of Catholic orthodoxy are outliers, unfortunately. A Jesuit of my acquaintance once dismissively referred to Fr. Fessio as “a complicated man.” The clear implication was that his brothers in the Society would disown him if they could. It’s no surprise that the public face of the Society of Jesus today does not belong to Fr. Fessio or Fr. Pacwa. No, by far the most recognizable S.J. right now is Fr. James Martin. His mission does not seem to be preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ so much as celebrating, well, more earthy pursuits.
Two Different Lives
Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
It wasn’t always that way. For a very long time the Jesuits followed the mold of their founder, St. Ignatius Loyola. We celebrate his feast day today, July 31st. Like St. Paul, who told the Galatians he had been “Crucified with Christ,” Ignatius lived two different lives. The crucible of pain and defeat transformed his life. A life of worldly ambition became a new life of sanctity and service. The poor but proud Spanish nobleman Inigo Lopez was indeed reborn as a different man when he became Ignatius.
Like St. Martin of Tours, St. Ignatius had been a soldier before he turned his life over to God. A French cannonball shattered his leg during his brave but futile efforts to defend the city of Pamplona. Doctors performed several extremely painful operations on his leg. They were unable, however, to correct the damage fully. It was clear that he would never be a soldier again.
A Different Battlefield
But something else had happened as well. During his months-long convalescence Ignatius had little to occupy his time other than reading and thinking. The fact that there were only two books in the castle, however, limited his reading. One book was a life of Christ, the other a lives of the saints. That left lots of time for thinking. He eventually noticed that fantasizing about his old worldly ways felt good when he was doing it. Tellingly, it left him feeling empty afterwards.
Reflecting about what he had read in the life of Christ and about the saints left him feeling joyful and uplifted. He began to realize that God was calling him to be a soldier on a very different battlefield. He eventually embraced the life of spiritual heroism exemplified by the likes of St. Francis and St. Dominic. Like them, he gathered his own group of followers who, in time, became the Society of Jesus.
Whose Standard, Christ’s or Satan’s?
“Ignatius convalesces at Loyola” by Albert Chevallier-Tayler, 1904
After his conversion Ignatius sought to live differently. He gave up the military officer’s stern and harsh way of addressing his subordinates, for instance. Instead, he employed a humble and gentle mode, even when administering necessary discipline. At the same time, he never lost his “fighting spirit”, even if he expressed it in a new way. And instead of directing his fire at human enemies, he was now concerned with “the principalities, . . .the powers, . . . the world rulers of this present darkness, . . . the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
In fact he saw the inner life of every believer as a battlefield. Here, each one of us must choose between following the battle standard of Christ, or that of Satan. His distinctive spirituality includes an emphasis on the “discernment of spirits.” This is a prayerful sifting of feelings and other influences to determine whether they are from the Spirit of God or the Spirit of the Devil. Drawing on his own experience of conversion, St. Ignatius forged an extraordinarily effective weapon to assist followers of Christ in this internal combat: the Spiritual Exercises, a potent mix of imagery, prayer, self-examination, and spiritual direction.
The Church Militant
Having self-disciplined himself in this way, Ignatius believed that the Christian should then, like a good soldier, submit to his superiors in obedience:
. . . we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it.” From The Spiritual Exercises, “To Have the True Sentiment Which We Ought to Have in the Church Militant”
This is not, however, simply the outward obedience that the man under arms must exhibit. It is also the inner obedience of both the Will and the Intellect. The saint explains further in his famous Letter on Obedience [text here]. The short version is that it is an obedience born of love, not fear.
This seems a good time to remember the concept of the “Church Militant”, that each of us is a Soldier for Christ. I’m not talking about soldiering in a literal sense. Granted, given the fallen state of humanity, there will always be need for that. I’m thinking more of the war to defend our souls and the souls of others against the “spiritual hosts of wickedness” that St. Paul mentions in his letter to the Ephesians.
Soldiers in the Cosmic War
Of course, the two kinds of warfare are not unrelated. Jihadists and their allies, for example, can see the spiritual decay in our culture. This only serves to embolden them (just as Osama Bin Laden says he was inspired by the apparent weakness of the United States after our inelegant withdrawal from Somalia). As the forces of Jihad discovered at Lepanto, however, they can’t hope to succeed against a Christendom united in Faith and fortified with Prayer. But against mere Secularism, well, what’s to stop them?
“The Miracle of St. Ignatius of Loyola” by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1617-1619. A dramatic visual representation of spiritual warfare.
Having said that, it is good to remember that any conflict with Islamism, secularism, or any other “ism” that threatens Christian culture in this world is secondary to the big cosmic struggle. The outcome of that cosmic battle is not in doubt (see the Book of Revelation). There will be casualties along the way, of course. We have no guarantee of the outcome of the internal battle each one of us must fight. St. Ignatius, a seeker for his own glory who, by God’s grace, was transformed into a soldier for Christ, shows us how to stay on the winning side, and follow the battle Standard of Our Lord.
Featured image top of page: “Ignatius is wounded at the Battle of Pamplona” by Albert Chevallier-Tayler, 1904
