Ep 196 - "The Tomb Is Empty...Now What? The Spiritual Warrior's Final Stand

James Caldwell: This is the Manly Catholic, the podcast that calls you out of the shadows and into the fight. Here we forge men into warriors for Christ, husbands, fathers and leaders who refuse to kneel to the modern world's lies. No more passivity, no more excuses, no more lukewarm faith. This is your battle cry, your call to arms. The time for weakness is over. It's time to fight. Welcome to the Manly Catholic. Let's get to work. Hello all, welcome back to another episode of the Manly Catholic. This is James, your host, and I am so happy you made it to part seven of our spiritual warfare series. If you're joining us for the first time, I welcome you. Though I do want to say, go back and start from episode one of the series. We've covered a lot of ground. We've talked about the reality of the spiritual battle that you are already in, whether you agreed to fight in there or not. We've looked at the weapons that the enemy uses against us, especially as men. pride, lust, isolation, fear, despair. We've explored the weapons that God has given us, the sacraments, the rosary, scripture, fasting, and the authority all in the name of Jesus Christ. We've talked about common doors, the things that open men up to oppression. We've also talked about defending your home, your parish, and your family. Seven episodes on spiritual warfare culminating in this episode here today. And now we end here. I don't think it's any coincidence that we are ending on Holy Week, the most sacred days of the Christian year. Because today's episode is not really about tactics. It is about the simple truth. You can do this because God has equipped you and the irrefutable proof is the empty tube. And the fact that you are still breathing, that you are here, you are designed for this time and for this purpose. But the question now you must ask yourself is, what am I? going to do about it. Before we dive in, let us start with St. Michael prayer. Beg in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou prince of the heavenly host by the power of God cast in hell, Satan, and all evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls, amen. And the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. I want to talk about a soldier with you guys. Granted, it is a make-believe soldier, but just bear with me. His name was Marcus and he was a Roman centurion. One of the men assigned to guard the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth on the Saturday after the crucifixion. He had been at Golgotha. He had watched the sky go dark at noon. He had felt the earth shake when the man died. He went home that Friday night and he couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about what his commanding officer had said when the last breath left Jesus. Truly this man was the son of God. He thought about the way Jesus died. Despite everything he went through, the mocking, the beatings, the ridicule, he ended his life with a prayer. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. So there Marcus stood early Saturday morning outside a sealed tomb, armed, trained, a professional fighter. Yet he was terrified. Not of an enemy that he could see, but of something that he couldn't name, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Something that shifted in the universe that Friday afternoon and he knew it, even if he could not explain it. Because brothers, this is where we find a lot of men today. Standing guard armed with some things, sensing that something maybe cosmic is happening, a shift if you will, but not quite sure what to do with it. Spiritual warfare in itself has become quite the hot topic as of late. Sean Ryan recently had Dr. Dan Schneider on twice and father Chad Ripperger. This is our final episode together in spiritual warfare for the time being, but I'm not going to leave you outside the tomb. I'm going to take you inside of it because Easter Sunday is coming. And let me be honest with you for a moment. If you've been with us throughout this series, we've covered some heavy stuff. It's been pretty heavy, maybe even overwhelming for you, perhaps even a little bit discouraging and that's okay. It should be a little bit. Especially if you have not been engaging, you might be a little depressed or discouraged like, wow, I've really failed, but that is OK. That's what we're here for. To encourage you to equip you. Father Gabriel Morse, who is a longtime exodus of in Rome, said something very profound and something I don't think a lot of men think about. He said the devil's greatest fear is not a man who knows theology. It's a man who prays a man who goes to confession, a man who receives the Eucharist with faith. The devil fears a man in a state of grace far more than a man with a library of spiritual books. Think about that. The enemy doesn't run from your sophistication. He runs from your holiness. You can know the theology, but do you actually practice it? So yes, we have learned a lot of these last six episodes, and I want you to carry all of that with you, but I want you to understand something fundamental. None of this is about becoming spiritually invincible through your own effort because we cannot because we're human. This is about leaning into the ultimate victor. was already one. St. Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Colossians when he says, he being Jesus disarmed the principalities and powers that made a public example of them triumphing over them in him. Do hear what he is saying? He's saying the principal principalities and the powers, the demonic hierarchy, the rules of darkness have already been publicly humiliated. Christ on the cross stripped them of their ultimate weapon, which was death. He took it from them. Now the war of course is not in doubt. know who the ultimate victory is, but we are now fighting in the aftermath of D-Day. The decisive battle has been won, like we know, but what we are doing now is the hard work of pushing through to the final piece. You may have heard of a soldier named Hiroa Anoda. He was a Japanese soldier stationed in the Philippines during World War II. Now when the war ended in 1945, Anoda, he didn't believe it. His commanding officers had trained him never to surrender. And no one came to formally relieve him of his post. So he and other soldiers kept fighting in the jungle for 29 years. He survived on bananas and coconuts. He staged small raids. He believed he was still at war. He was finally brought out of the jungle in 1974, nearly three decades after the war has ended when his former commanding officer flew to the Philippines and personally relieved him of his duty. And brothers, I think a lot of Catholic men are living like heroic noted today. They are exhausted. They are fighting in the jungle. And no one has clearly told them that the war is won. You don't fight to earn victory. You fight from victory. You fight because there are people who need to hear the news. You fight to bring the liberated territory under the authority of the one who already owns it. Too many men are struggling on their own. They are isolated on an island. They're trying to do everything themselves. Men, this simply cannot be the way it is because we will fail on our own. We cannot live with our blinders on, thinking if we just try harder or we can just toughen up, do it with more grit, we can just grit our way through this. I fall into this trap all the time. What new vena can I start again? What new prayer can I learn? All these are wonderful tools the church has given us an arsenal of weapons to use. But if not used correctly, what's the point? What does it become? It just becomes a checklist. The risen Christ is your commanding officer and he has come to you in scripture, in the sacraments, in the church to personally relieve you of the burden of thinking you have to win this on your own. Because remember gentlemen, his burden is easy and his load is light. Now let's walk through this Holy Week together, right? This is again, one of the, if not the holiest week in the liturgical calendar, because I think also the sequence of what happened to Jesus during Holy week is a roadmap for the spiritual warrior spy Thursday named for the betrayal of Jesus of Judas. Excuse me. I think about what Jesus does on that night, right? Spy Thursdays. He knows what is coming. He knows about Judas. He knows what Peter is about to do and denying him. He knows about the rest, the torture of the cross and what does he do? He washes his disciples feet. gives the Eucharist. He prays for his friends. At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread, broke it, and said, this is my body, which will be given for you. Do this in memory of me. He instituted the greatest weapon in our arsenal, the Holy Eucharist, on the night he was betrayed. Dr. Dan Schneier has written and spoken extensively about how the Eucharist functions in spiritual warfare, not just as spiritual food, but as a real physical act of divine authority as being placed into the body of the warrior. When you receive the body and blood of Christ in a state of grace, you are literally carrying God into the battle with you. The demons know this, they respond to it, and they hate it. On the night of the greatest betrayal in human history, Jesus gave us the greatest gift that tells you something about how God operates. He doesn't abandon you in your darkest moment. He feeds you. He nourishes you. He strengthens you. And then he went into the garden, got the seminary. And he prayed with sweat like drops of blood father if you are willing take this cup away from me Still not my will but yours be done And what did the father send an angel to strengthen him? And the moment of Christ deepest agony God sent an angel God did not remove the suffering, but he sent help and he will do the same for you Now gentlemen, if you are enjoying this episode and all the other episodes we are bringing about into the cosmos. What you're hearing right now is hitting home. If the series has meant something to you, if it's challenging, encourage you maybe even lit a fire on you. Can you please do us a favor hit that subscribe, subscribe button right now. Leave a review like the video. More than anything, think of one man in your life who needs to hear this. Your brother, your buddy, your son, a co worker, send them this episode, you don't have to have a long conversation about just say, Hey, listen to this. I was thinking about you. I thought you might enjoy this. Because it's not a small thing. That's spiritual warfare too. All right, let's jump back into the episode. So now we're on a Good Friday. Now I want to reframe something for you. The cross is not the moment Jesus lost. The cross is the moment that Jesus won. Think about the enemy must have seen it, right? The demonic powers that spent thousands of years working to corrupt, divide, and destroy humanity. They had done enormous damage. And then God himself stepped into human flesh and the enemy threw everything at him. temptation the desert corrupt religious leaders betrayal torture abandonment mockery and finally death not only death but a humiliating death probably the most gruesome death that you could possibly think of The enemy put his best weapons against the son of God and let them all fly in his face and then the trap closed Because death couldn't hold him Father Chad Ripker has made this point compelling. He says the cross was not the failure of a plan. It was the execution of one The devil and his pride, of course, thought that he had won. He didn't understand that he was being outmaneuvered by an omniscient God who had set the trap before the foundation of the world. As St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, none of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. The crucifixion was the enemy's greatest mistake. He brought death to the one being who could swallow death whole. Now let's come back to Marcus, our fictional soldier from the outset. Imagine him at the foot of the cross. He's been assigned to manage the execution. He has seen men die before, dozens of times, maybe hundreds. He knows what it looks like when a man breaks, when the will collapses under pain. But this man was different. This man on the cross is choosing every moment very carefully. He could have called 12 legions of angels, he said to himself, but he stays. forgives. He provides for his mother. He provides for the church that he established. Behold your son. Behold your mother. He descends into the darkness of death not because he was dragged, but because he walked in on his own free will. And when it is finished, when the last breath is gone, the earth shakes and the curtain in the temple tears in two from top to bottom. And Mark is a pagan soldier A man of violence looks up at this body on the cross and hears his commanding officer utter one of the most theological statements any human being said that day. Truly this man was the son of God. Mystic monk coffee and prayer, it's the perfect blend. Mystic monk coffee isn't just another cup of coffee. It's handcrafted by the Carmelite monks of Wyoming, roasted with care and infused with prayer. Whether you're starting your morning or fueling your day, mystic monk coffee has you covered. It offers rich, bold flavors that are as divine as their mission. By choosing mystic monk, you're not just enjoying exceptional coffee, but you're supporting a community of monks dedicated to their work, to prayer, and to the church. It's coffee with a cause. So what are you waiting for? Visit mysticmonkcoffee.com and experience the brew that's feeling faith and flavor. And here is what I want you to carry from Good Friday Brothers. The cross is your model for spiritual warfare, not the absence of suffering. The cross, you pick it up, you follow, and you trust the one who led you into the darkness knows the way out. As Jesus said, whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. This is not just a frightening demand is an invitation for us into the most powerful act in history. He's asking you to join him. But the question is, will you follow him? Now let's jump to Holy Saturday. I personally think it is one of the most underappreciated days of Holy Week. And I think it is the day that speaks most directly to where many of you are right now. Holy Saturday is the day of silence. Jesus is in the tomb. His mother sits in grief. His disciples are in hiding, fearful. The women are planning to come to the tomb to anoint a body. From the outside, everything looks like defeat, like there is no hope. Everything looks like the story is over. But underneath the earth, according to our ancient faith, something is happening. The Apostles' Creed tells us he descended into hell, not to suffer there, but to conquer, to unlock the gates. to bring out the captives who had been waiting. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him. Holy Saturday looks like nothing is happening, but the greatest rescue mission in history is underway in the dark. Man, I need you to hear this if you're in a season of Holy Saturday. If the prayers feel silent, if the warfare has been heavy, if it seems like nothing, moving and the tomb is sealed. God is not absent. He is working in the dark. He is not slow, but he is purposeful and the dawn is coming. Be still and know that I am God. The Hebrew word for be still, rafa, literally means to restore, to be made whole, to stop striving in your own strength. Holy Saturday is God's invitation to trust him in this silence. And then Sunday comes. The women arrive at the tomb still in grief, still in the darkness before dawn, and they find the stone has been rolled away. And an angel says to them, He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. He is not here. Four words that changed the course of history. What the resurrection means for us as spiritual warriors is this. The enemy's ultimate weapon has been neutralized. Death, the final tear, the thing every human being fears most, besides taxes, has been walked into and walked out of by the Lord of life. And because he rose, we share in that rising. As St. Paul writes in Romans, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we should also live with him. We know that Christ raised from the dead dies no more. Death no longer has power over him. No longer has power over him. And because you are baptized into Christ as Christians, you are buried with him and raised with him. That power has been given to you as well. Not because you earned it, because you belong to him. Let's come back to Marcus one last time, right? It's early Sunday morning. He and the other guards have been at that tomb all night. They're tired, they're cold, and the ground shakes. The second earthquake in three days, and an angel descends. The Gospel of Matthew tells us his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men. They fell like dead men. Roman soldiers, professional warriors. And when Marcus gets up off the ground, the stone is rolled back, the tomb is open, and it is empty. What does do? He has a choice. What do we do? He can go back to his superiors and collect a bribe to lie about what had happened, as is reported in the Gospels. The man of the guards did just that. Or he can walk toward the empty tomb, look inside, and let it change everything. Brothers, that is the choice before every man who has listened into this series. You can take the bribe. You can go back to the comfortable life that the spiritual battle isn't real, that you don't need to fight. that your passivity isn't hurting anyone. You're not damaging anyone. You're a nice guy. Get along just fine. Or you can walk through the empty tomb, look inside and let it change everything. And if you guys want to continue to help change everything in every man's life here on this earth, I want to ask you humbly to help support this podcast because gentlemen, this podcast is fully listener funded. There are no corporate sponsors, no advertisers telling us what we can and cannot say. Just been like you who believe this content matters and wants it to stay going. If this series has been worth anything to you, if in one episode change how you see the battle, how you lead your family, how you think about your faith, I'd ask you to consider supporting the show. We have four tiers over on buy me a coffee, each with some really great perks. The link is in the description below. Even the smallest contribution makes a real difference. and helps us keep putting out content that is unapologetically Catholic, unapologetically for men, and unapologetically about the truth. And now, let's finish strong. Now as we finish off this episode, gentlemen, there is a difference between encouragement that makes you feel good and encouragement that makes you strong. Because the truth is this, God does not send you into a battle he cannot help you with. 1 Corinthians 10 13 tells us probably the most important verse for the spiritual warrior. When it says, temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength. But with a temptation will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. God will not let you be tested beyond your strength. The battle you are facing right now, the spiritual attack on your marriage, your family, your parish, your own soul has been permitted by God. And if it has been permitted, it has also been equipped for. armor has already been provided. St. Paul lays it out in Ephesians 6. Truth, righteousness, the Gospels, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer. Every piece was purchased by the blood of Christ on Good Friday and activated by His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Father Rippaker talks about the authority structure, which we talked about, that God has given authority to specific people in specific domains and that when men act within that authority, With prayer and fasting in the sacraments, they are extraordinarily difficult for the enemy to touch. You have authority over your own soul through baptism and confirmation. You have authority over your home as a husband and father. You have authority within your parish as a priest or as a member of the faithful operating under your pastor. That authority is not earned. It is given by God through Christ. Here's what that means practically. When you walk into your home tonight and you bless your children with holy water, you are not performing a superstitious ritual. You're exercising a God-given authority over the spiritual environment of that home. When you pray the rosary with your family, you're deploying the Queen of Heaven in the defense of your household. When you go to confession this week, and I am begging you to go to confession this week, you're walking into a court of mercy where a priest acting in the person of Christ is authorized by God Almighty to speak the words, I absolve you. Your sins, gone. Your armor, restored. Your access to grace is now fully open. St. Pope John Paul II wrote in Novo Millennio Innuenti, is not therefore a matter of inventing a new program. The program already exists. It is the plan found in the gospel and in living tradition. It is the same as ever. Ultimately, it has in its center Christ himself. The program is Christ. That's it. The plan has always been in Christ. Every weapon, every tactic, every spiritual discipline we have discussed, they all lead back to him and flow from him. You are not the hero of the story. It is not about you. You are a soldier serving the hero who already won. There's a story actually about Saint Francis of Assisi. I want you to sit with it because it really is truly powerful when you think about it. One of his brothers came to him deeply distressed. He was being tormented spiritually mentally. Temptations were very severe. The darkness was heavy. He went to Francis expecting the great Saint to give him a strategy and exorcism prayer, something powerful. Saint Francis just looked at him simply and said, go, make your confession, go to mass, give thanks to God. That's it. The great saint, the man who had reportedly brought a demon out of an entire city once by simply walking through it in prayer, pointing his suffering brother back to the ordinary weapons, the sacraments, gratitude, and the church. Because St. Francis understood something, it takes most men years to learn. The extraordinary things God does in spiritual warfare almost always flow through the ordinary means he has established. You do not need to be a great mystic, men. You don't need to the name of every demon in the hierarchy. You need to be a man of the sacraments, a man of prayer, a man who shows up and says, more, you shall not pass. And now I want to speak to you directly, whoever you are, wherever you're listening, your car at the gym, walking the dog. Maybe you've been fighting and you're tired. Maybe the marriage has been harder than you expected. Maybe you're battling something from your past that keeps coming up or you're watching your kids drift from the faith and you feel helpless. You feel the weight of the world on your shoulders right now. I want you to hear the voice of Jesus speaking to you through the pages of the Gospel of John, Chapter 11. His dear friend Lazarus had been dead for four days. His sister Martha runs out to meet you and says, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. She's asking, where were you? Why didn't you come sooner? And maybe you are asking those same questions. Where are you God? Where are you Jesus? Why have you not come to save me, save my brother, save my wife, save my sick child? Jesus does not rebuke her. He doesn't explain himself. He just asks, where have you laid him? And then, and this is one of most stunning moments of all of scripture, the shortest verse in the Bible, which is, in Jesus wept. The son of God, who knows he is about to raise Lazarus from the dead, who has all the power of the universe at his command, is weeping. He enters the grief with them. He doesn't skip over the pain to get to the miracle. He stands in the darkness with the people he loves. But then he says, Lazarus, come out. And the dead man walks out of the tomb. Gentlemen, this is your God. He weeps with you. He enters your darkness and then he speaks and dead things come back to life. Whatever is dead in your life, whatever you've given up on, give it to him this holy week, this Easter, because he is very, very good at making dead things come to life. So what can you actually do now as we wrap up here? How do you move forward into the Easter season? I'm gonna give you five things that you can work on. One, hopefully before Easter, is you go to confession. We've talked so many times about confession during this series. Cannot emphasize it enough, go to confession. Number two, close any open doors. We talked about this in episode four, pornography, occult involvement, unforgiveness, unconfessed, serious sin. These are all open doors, close them. this week if you can. you make a phone call to someone you've wronged, ask for forgiveness, do it. Number three, establish your daily prayer rhythm. Does not have to be super extravagant guys. Do a morning offering, a nightly examine, do the angelus morning, noon, night. Pray your rosary with your family. Bonus points there. You don't need two hours a day guys, you just need consistency. Number four, find your brothers. Ecclesiastes 412 says a three applied cord is not easily broken. Isolation is one of the enemy's primary tactics against men. Find two or three men who are serious about their faith and commit to fighting together. Pray together, hold each other accountable. Check in. The warrior who fights alone is the warrior who loses alone. Guys, we cannot do this enough. Reach out to us, manlycatholic.gmail.com. We'd be happy to help you. Pray for you. Excess 90 has great fraternities. Find one in locally. If you download the app, they have way to find local men. Mail local men's group at your parish. Plenty of ways now to to make sure you connect with men nearby. Finally, bless your home this Easter season. If you can have a priest bless your home as well, but you can take holy water, walk through every room of your home, pray the Saint Michael prayer, pray for each person who lives there by name. You have authority men over that home. Exercise it. use it. The catechism tells us that the domestic church, the family home, is the first school of faith. Consecrate it and defend it. That is your responsibility. And finally, I want to close with something St. Paul wrote. And I want you to hear it not as an ancient scripture that doesn't apply to you, but as the battle cry written for this exact moment in your life. He says in Romans, what then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but handed him over for us, handed him over for us all, how will he not give us everything else along with him? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. Friam commits that neither death nor life nor angels or principalities nor present things nor future things nor powers nor height nor depth. nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature. That includes every demon in hell, every spirit of darkness, every weapon the enemy has ever swung at your marriage, your mind, your faith, your children, none of it can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord. The tomb is empty, men. The victor has risen. and is calling you by name to rise with him. This is not the end of the series. This is the beginning of the rest of your life as a spiritual warrior. Go to confession, receive the Eucharist, bless your home, pray with your family, fight with your brothers, defend what God has entrusted to you. He has risen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God bless you. We'll see you in the fight. And until next time, go out there and be a saint. Brothers. Thank you for listening, but do not let this end here. If this episode stirred something inside of you, do not keep it to yourself. Share it with a brother who needs to hear it, a man who is tired, a man who's drifting, a man who's under attack and does not even know it. This podcast exists because the battle is real and souls are at stake. If this work has helped you, please support the channel so we can keep fighting. Your support will help ignite the mission to keep us going. We need your help, brothers. I know you will come through for us. Pray for us because we need it as well. The enemy does not rest and neither can we. Now go and live this. Be a saint, not tomorrow, but today. Choose the hard thing, reject sin, get back up. Go to confession, pray your rosary, love your family, and carry your cross without complaining.