The Sixth Day
After we have meditated on the Kingdom of Christ, His self-annihilation, His private life and His zealous labors, we must now consider the plots and efforts of the archenemy Satan, who opposes Him at every point. For life is a continuous warfare: “The life of man upon earth is a warfare,” says Job; and in every war there are of course two opposing forces. St. Augustine in his celebrated work on “The City of God,” compared together the working of those conflicting powers, the impersonations of virtue and vice, of humility and pride. St. Ignatius here proposes a similar parable, for the purpose of discovering the plots and snares of Satan to ruin souls, contrasting them with Christ’s plans and labors to procure their eternal happiness.