[17] For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit his father's blessing, he was rejected because he found no opportunity to change his mind, even though he sought the blessing with tears. [18] You have not approached that which could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm [19] and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them, [20] for they could not bear to hear the command: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned." [21] Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling."
(CCC 409) This dramatic situation of "the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one" (1 Jn 5:19; cf. 1 Pt 5:8) makes man's life a battle: The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity (GS 37 § 2).
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