9781644135945

The Light of the World
we accept with resignation as part of the kindly providence of our Father. Even the malice of
men can become for us an instrument in the hand of God for our sanctification. The loss of
our earthly possessions is not of great moment as long as our heavenly inheritance is not endangered.
We measure all things with the measure of eternity and study them in the light of the
Gospel. Everything which we encounter is a creature of God and is to be used for the purpose
which God intended. We lay up a treasure, not upon earth, but in heaven, where the moths
will not devour nor the thieves break through to steal (Mt 6:19). We know that we have God
for our Father and that we have been incorporated in Christ as living members of His mystical
body. In this manner the teaching of Christ permeates and elevates all our human actions, as the
leaven permeates the meal with which it is mixed. A soul who is thus inspired has already begun
the life of heaven on earth and makes progress according to the degree of his faith in Christ.
“The Lord hath reigned” (Introit). Christ wishes to reign in our hearts to permeate them with
the leaven of faith. But our actions are still too human, too earthly, too imperfect. We still rely
too much on our own strength and not sufficiently on the power and wisdom of God. We still
place too high a value on the things of this world, and not enough on the things that are eternal.
The words of the Gospel remain for us mere printed words and not a part of our very being.
“The Lord hath reigned.” But if the Lord is to reign in our hearts, His thoughts, His motives, and
His ambitions must become ours too. The Christian is another Christ. Christ established His
holy Church and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, for the express purpose of making
us one with Him. The better we prepare ourselves for Holy Communion, the more perfectly
will His work be accomplished in us.
Prayer
Grant us, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, ever to fix our thoughts on reasonable things and
to do what is pleasing to Thee both in words and in deeds. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Friday
“The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of
meal until the whole was leavened” (Gospel). This leaven we understand to be the grace of
Christ, which leavens all mankind.
“In three measures of meal.” The meal is a symbol of our heavily burdened human nature, which
needs the elevating power of grace. Pride is one of the most deep-seated of human vices. It
poisons all our thoughts and contaminates our most generous actions; it draws us slowly but
surely away from God. Even our inborn sensuality, which continually molests the spirit and
draws us with a strange hypnotic power toward evil, is really the result of our pride. By ourselves
it is impossible to conquer this vice of pride and sensuality, for man is inclined by nature toward
evil. As a matter of fact, all our actions, when not tempered by divine grace, are sensual and
worldly. “For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of
the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 Jn 2:16). Men
thirst for pleasure, sensuality, covetousness, and the fulfillment of their own will. Such is the
meal of human weakness in which the woman, the Church, hid the leaven.
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