The life of man upon earth is a warfare, and his days are like the days of a hireling” – Job 7:1
In the last few decades, we have witnessed our culture rapidly descend from one that encourages virtuous living and morality into one that celebrates wickedness and perversities. Our children are sacrifices on the altar of decadence and pleasure. Life has lost value in people’s eyes beyond the short-term pleasures of the flesh. This culture of death and sin did not come about overnight. In truth, as Christians, we have been sleepwalking straight into this tragedy. Instead of being vigilant and on guard, many of us have succumbed to the world’s comforts. Christ called us out of
the darkness to follow Him in a world that hates Him. Instead of being like strangers in a strange land, our lukewarm attitudes have made us indifferent to its residents We often hear phrases like “Live like there is no tomorrow.” or “Life is short.” encouraging us to participate in depravity and vice. Our time in this world is truly short, but our time home in eternity is very long. Life on this Earth is a state of constant warfare with enemies who will do all in their power to claim our souls for hell. When the majority of Christians have forgotten that we are fighting a battle, then there is no need to wonder why the world has spiraled into insanity.
Fighting a war implies the existence of an enemy. In our state of spiritual warfare, we have three. These are the world, the flesh, and the devil. Victory against them would be impossible if not for the divine assistance offered to us by the grace of the Lord. Our battle became much more difficult when our culture surrendered itself to the world.
Becoming slaves to the passions and following our desires unrestricted has been normalized and promoted to us since our youth. After realizing this reality, many fall into discouragement and apathy, but these are also tools in the enemy’s arsenal. We can take comfort in knowing that through prayer, we may obtain the graces and virtues needed in our spiritual battle. There is no excuse for despair when Christ is with us to guide us to victory.
When our souls are in a state of sanctifying grace, we have three supernatural powers bestowed upon us that lead us to God. These are the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Strengthening these virtues can give us a solid spiritual foundation to better stand against our adversaries. Christians cannot afford to leave this foundation to decay in today’s demoralizing world. Demonic forces are sure to find weaknesses in the cracks otherwise.

Too many have neglected their own cracked foundation, and now our society is threatened with shattering. We must stay vigilant against sin and pray for increased faith, hope, and charity to remain virtuous.
To have the virtue of faith means to believe the word of God and all it reveals to us. It is crucial to our salvation that our faith is firm. St. Paul the Apostle, mentions the “obedience that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5). To be genuine, our faith requires us to act on all the truths Christ has revealed. We cannot be passive and then say that our faith is authentic. As noted in the Epistle of James, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17). Our enemies thrive when we are faithless, for if we are not actively following Christ we will stray into the jaws of the beast. Hope is the virtue through which we place our trust in the Lord. We can never achieve any victory without the help of God. Only because of Him can we have salvation and eternal life. Like faith, our hope must be firm lest we fall into despair. When we face trials and sufferings and doubt God’s faithfulness, we will find it impossible to persevere through them. We must trust that all the tools for salvation and weapons for spiritual warfare will be given to us by God. Without a strong virtue of hope, we cannot trust that Heaven awaits us, which serves the enemy just fine since they do not want us to make it there.
According to St. Paul the Apostle, charity is the greatest of the three theological virtues. Charity, also known as love, is the virtue through which we love God above all things and love others as ourselves. These are the two greatest commandments given to us by Christ. “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22: 37-40). There is a grave lack of charity in our culture today. The world does not love God but rebels against Him. It does not love us; if it did, we would be encouraged to follow and love God instead of rewarding blasphemy. Our Christian understanding of love is different than that of the secular world. Love is a deliberate choice. In any situation, we have the choice of performing acts of love. God calls us to perform acts of love not just for our friends
But for our foes as well. When we do, we show our appreciation of God’s mercy and goodness. Through charity, man is united with God and each other. For this reason, it is the greatest of the three theological virtues. Faith and hope are necessary for attaining Heaven, but charity is the eternal virtue.
When the majority of Christians are apathetic to wickedness, the result is a parasitic culture that poisons you with cheap, meaningless pleasures and vice. To change this, we must start by building our spiritual foundation with faith, hope, and charity. Through prayer and the sacraments, God will give us whatever we need to do His will and increase our virtue. Through man’s will and strength alone, victory is impossible. Only by imitating and following Christ can we reach Heaven and take our civilization back from the brink of collapse.
“So there abide faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” – I Corinthians 13:13