One of the easiest ways that Satan can enter your life is by using your ego. I find this particularly frustrating and taming my ego has become a routine exercise for me. Strife enters your life through little, insignificant incidents. It can be when someone ignores you or is short with you in conversation. Our ego then becomes bruised and decides that this person does not like us. Before long, we are having thoughts that this person is spreading gossip about us and we retaliate. Just as C. S. Lewis's characters Screwtape and Wormwood celebrated with glee, the Devil delights in creating this scenario over and over. He can quickly check us off his "to-do" list for that day and move on to others. We quickly become his servant and accomplish his task for him. Lewis gives us the perfect example of this in his book and as I have said before, if you have not read it, The Screwtape Letters should be on your must read list. Take a closer look at the world around you and see if you can identify the ways in which Satan has insinuated himself. Is there strife in your family or your workplace. One of the main targets for this type of destructive work is the Church. Does your church have problems and dissension? Do you know what is causing it? Can you help to stop it? If Satan can take root in our Church, what is sacred? We must work together as the Body of Christ to rid our Church of strife and sin. And it may just start with taking a look at your ego.
The twelve apostles chosen by Jesus formed the bedrock of the early Church , and their Catholic identity is deeply rooted in their direct relationship with Christ and the mission He entrusted to them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights this foundational role, stating that Jesus "instituted the Twelve as 'the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy'" ( CCC 860 ). These men were not simply followers; they were handpicked by Jesus, lived intimately with Him, witnessed His miracles and teachings firsthand, and were specifically commissioned to preach the Gospel to all nations ( Matthew 28:19-20 ). Their unique position as eyewitnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and their reception of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, established them as the authoritative leaders of the nascent Church, a reality echoed in the writings of early Church Fathers like Ignatius of Antioch, who emphasized the apostles' authority as repre...
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