As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn't deep. But when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up. Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants. But some seed fell in good soil, and the plants bore grain: some had one hundred grains, others sixty, and others thirty."

(Matthew 13:3-8)

The battle involves God, His angels, instruments and recipients of the Seed of Life, versus the Devil, his angels, instruments and recipients.

There are few areas where spiritual warfare seemed to be more aggressive.

The Kingdom of God on earth is situated especially in the hearts of the 'Little Ones'. 'Little Ones' are those who welcome the gifts of the Holy Spirit to transform their lives, into who Christ as man was. The fruits of the Holy Spirit would be revealed by their humility, dependent and trust in God.

Therefore where God's Kingdom is concentrated, there the spiritual battle shall be heated up.

In the hearts of 'Little Children', were hidden the most desirous and precious treasure, that the Devil wanted to destroy, by 'murder and rob', as Jesus described them. The devil would 'murder' the soul and replaced their pure human spirit with his evil spirit, thus suffocating and killing it. They 'rob' what does not belong to them. All creation and especially human being, belongs to Him, but the devil rob from God, the consequence of our sinful nature and desire. Spiritually blind people had numbed God's senses, piercing the most Sacred of Jesus and shared by the Immaculate Heart of Mary, together with the angels and saints.

We can never blame God for our spiritual blindness. 'The sun is shinning brightly in the sky. All who decided to enjoy the warm, light and heat of the sun had to come out. Those who decided to stay indoors, would not be able to receive the benefit of the sun'. Can we blame the sun, which served its purpose of lighting, warming and nourishing the world, if we still dwell in darkness and shivering with cold?

We definitely cannot blame God.

God had given us all the ability and weapon to conquer and fight along side God against the devil, when they or 'darkness' come near to us. Mankinds are more comfortable and complacent dwelling in darkness in the world apart from God, then vice versa, so that our evil deeds of which we enjoy doing would not be exposed.

Those murdered souls are death as far as spiritual is concerned. The world of the death is hell. It is a state of being, whereby God allows them to inherit. The door to hell is widely open and the road is easy, but the price of this easy lives, would had to be paid with eternal condemnation and suffering. The choice is always open to us, to choose God and suffer in this life or to choose the Devil, enjoy and indulge our lives with all forms of sin. Those who choose God, suffering is a blessing and a mystery of love. Those who suffer this way are not alone. God is accompanying and bearing the pain and agony with us. This pain and agony, may be in the form of merely mental, physical or spiritual. For those who had overcome the fear of tragedies and suffering, would not be easily shatter the second time around. Suffering can be merely a temporary reality or just a state of being. Temporary reality means that our physical suffer, of which our human senses could experience, which is temporary, in this earthly life only. It could be just a state of being, whereby the physical could not see, but spiritual senses can experience all these. Our spiritual senses, would be completely ignore, if we overemphasize on the physical senses. If we are too attached to the world, we cannot possibly hold on to God. What our eyes could see is good for this temporary earthly life and only physical senses could benefit, but what the human eyes could not see, which is spiritual, had eternal value and benefit, that goes beyond this world.

The weapons of the devil are varied and stayed almost completely hidden, until it is almost too late.

They are Prince of deceits and are liars. There is never any truth in the world of darkness and the devil.

They tried to drag as many souls as possible as long as there are opportunity freely available to them.

They are set free to roam the world as savanger. As their time are limited, therefore they come in full force, hidden from our naked eyes and all physical senses.

If we only rely on the physical senses to believe and cling on as 'rope of hope', then we are the most pitiful person in this world. For they cannot bring the soul to salvation.

Therefore for all Children of God, who are involved in this spiritual battle, would have to open up and yield to God's Spirit. For He had every keys to the main door, that is our heart, to all the rooms and hidden hideouts, if we only allow Him to use them. God too gives us all the keys, whether main doors or other apartments of our spiritual body, but if we cannot exercise wisdom, the spiritual bodies would be destroy, if we invited all evil and impure spirits into our lives. The spiritual truth used to be that Jesus would be the one who patiently knocks on the door of our hearts, for us to open and let Him in. Not unless we are incapable of using the keys to open, so we asked Jesus to apply His Will on us. When we yield to God, by asking Him to use the 'Master keys' to every door of our lives, He would have to response and save the crying souls or spiritual bodies, enclosed in human flesh.

The Devil can freely attack, rob and steal, God's property, as long us we allow them. Their limit is our freewill, God's most precious gifts to us, yet this can also be destructive and deathly. It is either a weapon to save the souls or the weapon to destroy. This freewill is completely free and limitless. This means that if we can positively exercise, it would brings us not only just as member of the Kingdom of God, but even share in the power, authority of Jesus Christ as St. Paul, St. Peter and all the other faithful prophets. They can even raise the death, their shadow would cause about healing and forgiveness of sin. These were the power and authority of Jesus as God and glorified Son of Man. By negative, manipulation and irresponsible use of our freewill, would bring us, not only as mere members of the devil's Kingdom, but share in the lives and missions of the devil, which is the destruction of the souls and trying to penetrate the Kingdom of God on earth. As far as we can see, they had some success, but God put a permanent limit for them, so they are incapable of exerting themselves further then the boundary meant for them, although they had not given up hope.

Exert himself further then our hearts allow mean, that even though we can freely exercise our freewill to restrain them from stepping further into our lives but they are not complacent, so they push a bit further, until its limit.

They had their armies, aiming and targeting the Church of Christ on earth, the bearer of God's Light, but Jesus stated firmly that the 'gate of hell', shall not be able to capture the church of Christ on earth. They may have already succeeded in prolonging or slowing down the spreading of the 'Good News' of Christ's death and resurrection, to a certain extend. They had succeeded to bring about 'civil wars and battles' in the church's different organizations and ministries. The outcome shall be that the church which had been instructed to spread the Gospels' message to the whole world, was entangled in minor setbacks and obstacles. They are engulfed in trying to settle their inner problem, instead of going out in full force to evangelize with the Spirit of the Son of God, as manifested in Jesus as Man, in St. Paul, Peter and others, who would willing die for God and the Gospel.

If Christians are satisfy with just a tiny seed of the Holy Spirit, and not given enough water, nourishment and soil, these seeds would either die off or as the parable described, 'taken by the bird of the air'. The 'bird of the air' is the devil and his instruments. They would happily feed the souls with all forms of 'junk food, tidbits, dirty water, etc'. At the end of our lives, what remain of our shinning souls, which was once, 'treasures, breathe' and Life of God, was a dirty, dark, death and useless souls. They are never worthy to wear the wedding gown reserved for Children of God. Therefore these dark and ugly souls had to go naked and in shamed, to the laugh and pleasure of the devil and his angels.

Therefore to escape this fate and eminent defeat, we must therefore allow God to transform, churn our hearts' soil, making it fertile and conducive for the 'Seed of Life' to grow, which is the Holy Spirit, its power and authority to take root, grow, mature and to bear fruit. That is to allow God's Spirit, which in Church we received powerfully in the form of the 'Bread of Life' that is Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. In all the Sacraments of the Church are the blessing and imparting of God love and mercy to all who come with a humble and contrite heart. The Sacraments of the Church, must be received with our hearts open to His love and mercy and with great humility. With the full knowledge that without God we are without life and hope. There would be no hope or faith. Faith, hope and love all proceed from the Father, through the Son, in unity with the Holy Spirit. What is contrary to holiness and goodness are evil and sins.

All works and process of sanctification and purification is the work of the Holy Spirit, empowering His Instruments and Servants.

The Devil second attempt is to destroy family, causing divorce, frustration, hopelessness, unforgiveness, hatred, anger, envy and all forms of sin. They are all out to destroy fruitful family life in union with God.

Families build up society and community. If our society and community are unhealthy, the whole nation would be greatly affected and crippled. It is not so much on mere moral education, which had been handed down that are valuable but more to spiritual education. Mankind can only exert himself to serve justice but to the extend of divine love, there is none.

What is the meaning of negative forces verses positive. These were what wise people of the world described good and evil forces. But not so much involving God but just human. They believe there are forces in the universe that is positive and negative, which would affect our lives and mentality that is, our mental and physical health. Some believe that 'Yoga' exercises, meditations and training would bring about the concentration of positive energy in their lives. They would have the ability and inner strength and power to refuse entry and the influence of these negative forces. They usually had very little to do with God but themselves.

Yes! Indeed this would have great impact in their lives, but still not the salvation of the souls. It would be disastrous when human try to reveal or try to prove to God that 'we can manage on our own'. It is just like saying that it is none of 'God's business'. It is one of the ways to show our frustration to God for bringing human into the world yet allowing suffering to come into their lives. So indirectly or not with full knowledge, they yield to the cry of the sinful flesh and desire to try to survive in this world apart from God.

The Devil uses all his power and authority to prevent or obstruct the 'Light' from reaching God's Children, especially aggressive in those who had all this while hunger and thirst for the Words of God.

As the 'Sower' continues to sow seeds into the fields, the birds try to eat them up, the sun burnt them, the thorn covered them, rock and stone prevented the seeds from growing, etc. What does all these obstacles got to do with us, after all they are there?

We can then say that God is unfair? Is God unfair?

Let us see who is at fault here!

First as it was in the beginning of creation, all the soil in the Garden of Paradise was perfect for growth. But then the devil was overwhelmed with pleasure, when they were invited into the Garden. They bring in all the obstacles and the ground was no longer conducive and fertile for the seed of Life to grow.

Here we see that Adam and Eve were at fault. Then Jesus came as New Adam and our Blessed Mother, Mary as the New Eve, they succeeded to crush the serpent's head, yet he was not completely death, yet. The mission of spreading his reign continues, until Judgement Day.

After that God concentrate in the hearts on mankind, not so much the material things, its value and law. The Kingdom of God therefore comes into the heart, as Jesus said that we need not go to Jerusalem or the Mountain to pray. For God shall reside in the hearts of God's Children. Most of our hearts had the aftermath of the greatest human fall, that is they had plenty of stones, rubbles and un-conducive for the 'Seed of Life' to grow, what more to bear fruits as expected.

Therefore God knew perfectly well that mankind had no power and authority to remove or continue to allow stones and all obstacles to settle or take roots, He promised His Holy Spirit to all who are convinced that without God, they had nothing. Once that covenant had been sealed through and in unity with the Everlasting Covenant Jesus made with His Father for mankind, God will sure to do His part without fail. Even though in times when temptation is strong and our body shaking, God knew that without helping us we are bound to plunge down. God never failed to fulfill His pledge with us individually. Many countless times and moments, we failed our part of the pledge and vows to God but not God. God is not disappointed, like He was not disappointed with St. Peter, when he denied Jesus three times. By three times, are sign that he fully in his weak and sinful nature cannot go along with Jesus to the cross and suffer. Then his pure human nature was awaken by God's Spirit and he mourned in anguish and grief for what he had said and done. Jesus never condemned Peter for that, but He overlooked all this as a challenge between the two natures in a human being. We too are engulfed in this battle. God knew perfectly well that in times to come, when he is filled with God's Spirit, his pure human nature would definitely triumph. This came to past, when he was also crucified on the cross. God too look forward for this faith Peter had in all disciples of his on earth. It does not mean that all of us are called to died like Peter, but in our own ways, we are going to faced persecution and trials. Are we going to satisfy the sinful desires and nature of the flesh, or are we going to favor the purity of human nature, its spirit and God's Spirit at work in us? We are not called to be Christian by names but true disciples, so that we can truly inherit the Kingdom of God, prepared for us in the beginning of time. The beginning of time is also the beginning of creation and the world.

Praise the Lord. Amen.