Before we get into any specifics regarding spiritual warfare, we need to lay down a good foundation. First of all, one basic reality that greatly affects the war for our soul is the fact that as humans our bodies and souls are interconnected.
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The Catechism gives us a succinct description of this basic truth:
“The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that ‘then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.’ Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by God.”
The human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God’: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:
Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day. (CCC 362, 364) [Emphasis Added]
Why does this matter? If we are going to fight the spiritual battle for our soul, we must realize that while it is a spiritual fight, it is being fought on two fronts: both body and soul. In the end, what we do with our bodies, directly affects our souls. This means we need to be vigilant and train our entire person.
The Two Fronts
Here is a common scenario. A man is tempted by pornographic images. Spiritually speaking, he is tempted to commit the sin of lust. Yet, this desire to commit this sin is twofold: it has a demonic source (the devil loves to tempt us in this way) and it has a human, bodily source. Our body has a sexual drive and its natural inclination when it sees a pornographic image is to follow through with the desire and engage in the sexual act of procreation. Therefore, when combatting this temptation one must come at it both spiritually (with prayer) and physically (by training our bodies to resist the natural desire). This is not easy and it takes a lot of effort on our part. However, it is possible to win the fight. We just have to realize that there are two dimensions to every battle.
Going forward, we will keep this in mind and do our best to cover both sides of the coin. One must never neglect one over the other. The moment we do, we will be overcome by an attack that we never saw until it hit us.