What does it mean to fight the good fight ? How about the right fight? Good versus evil? Good policy v. bad politics? Social justice?
How will the Church prevail against the gates of hell?
As an example let's consider a war story:
It was the age of city states, of castles and cities with high walls, when the leaders of a few hundred acres were called kings. In the times of knights in shining armor, mighty war horses, and frightful dragons. Most days arrived and departed without notice, let alone being recorded by history. They merely faded into tall tales, legends and fables. This story is one of those faint visions of very real, very hard days.
One fall day, after a bountiful harvest, the king of one city still wasn't satisfied with his lot and coveted the bounty of his neighbor. His army attacked the city of his former childhood friend, by sheer surprise defeated the knights of his enemy, stole the harvest, took captive the vast majority of the citizens, and claimed all the land of his neighbor’s kingdom. Make that – former kingdom.
But the defeated king, many of his knights, and quite a few of his peasants managed to escape the rampages of their new enemy. The winter was a hard one. They survived on scraps and the mercy of strangers while they nursed their wounds and dreamed of revenge. They would reclaim what was rightfully theirs in the coming spring. That so-called “king” would pay dearly for his betrayal.
When that spring day finally arrived they all knew the battle plan. Nothing, and nobody, would stop them from seizing the enemy’s city. The gates of the city would never keep them out... |
