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Desert Warfare for the Spirit
Photo by Tijs van Leur on Unsplash
Procure for yourself a good ship of war, well furnished with guns, in order to make war on sin, and strike terror into the powers of Hell. – St. Francis di Giromalo
Father Sebastian White’s editorial at The Magnificat is a magnificent reflection on Lent and Our Lord’s temptation in the desert. Reminding readers that the desert “evokes a state of weakness, vulnerability, and abandonment,” he emphasizes that “it is not limited to these negative connotations.” Citing Pope Benedict XVI, he says that the desert can also signify “a place of refuge and shelter—as it was for the people of Israel who had escaped from slavery in Egypt—where it is possible to experience God’s presence in a special way.”
This resonated with me in an intriguing manner, albeit somewhat differently. For one of the things I associate with the desert, in addition to both its potential for scarcity of resources and its potential to hide, is its potential as a battlefield.
Allow me to explain: conflict plays a major role in my image of a desert primarily because of a series I watched as a child. It was not a Western series, either; though I watched and still will view as many Westerns as I can, they did not form my overarching image of a desert. No, what formed my idea of a desert as a place of life-or-death combat was a Japanese cartoon (or anime).