Please don't leave powerful weapons on the sideline

Never face adversity by yourself, if at all avoidable. We are conditioned by our culture to be independent and that is fine and good in its own time and way. But, we are not made to be in isolation, and we are not created to face temptation alone. We are not sentenced to trying to grow spiritually alone.
God calls us into a relationship with Him and also with one another. We are commanded to, “Do THIS in memory of me.” We are commanded by Christ to gather together as His family to worship. We are called to come together, and Jesus does this for a reason. Actually, He does it for many reasons, but I would like to focus on just one. We come together because, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” These were the words that God spoke in the Garden of Eden before He made the woman.
We are made by God to be bound to Him in heaven for all eternity. When we do this we also become bound to all others who are united with the Trinity. We are made for communion. Our hearts long for communion. And we are made this way for good reason.
We do not have to face the scary dragon alone. In Genesis 3 we see that the woman faces the serpent essentially alone. Her husband is there, but he leaves his bride to face the big, scary serpent/dragon by herself. Even before she is tricked by the serpent we know that this is a probability. God gives us His Church and the sacraments to aid us in our battles for holiness.
Please do not leave these powerful weapons on the sideline. God gave these to us to help us. He gave us one another as well.
One of the most powerful tricks of the devil is to convince us that we are in this battle alone. Hogwash! We have Christ and all of the saints praying for us. We have friends and spiritual leaders to advise and guide us. We have the Bible. We have a lot of tools and support. Don’t leave them aside when it’s battle time!
— Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected]