Ephesians 6:1-20 / Luke 13:31-35
St. Teresa of Avila was quoted as saying this: I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.
What St. Teresa is probably saying is that as much as Satan instigates and tempts others to sin, his instruments and operatives can carry out his mission so ruthlessly that they can almost give hell to us.
And we in turn can succumb to the evil one's tactics by confronting the ones who do evil to us and we fight fire with fire with the result that all get consumed by the flames, with the evil one laughing from afar.
That is why the 1st reading tells us to put on God's armour so as to resist the devil's tactics.
And that means to realise that it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle with, but against the powers of darkness, the spiritual army of evil.
That is why we must rely on God's armour, or we will not be able to put up any resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold our ground.
So against these human instruments and operatives of the evil one, we have to pray all the time and asking for the Holy Spirit's guidance and help to see how the evil one is manipulating those to do evil and to cause us to sin.
In the gospel, when some Pharisees seem to warn Jesus that Herod has the intention to kill him, He knows who was instigating Herod to this evil intention. Jesus was able to see the tactics of the devil behind Herod's intention.
May we pray always and ask the Holy Spirit to be our Advocate and guard us from the evil one and not to fall into the trap of his evil tactics.
Let us also pray for those under the power of the evil one that they will be freed from his power and turn away from evil and begin to do good.