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The Light of the World
I dare act otherwise? “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow Me” (Mt 16:24).
Prayer
O God our refuge and our strength, be attentive to the prayers of Thy Church, and grant that
we may seek the things that are of God, and serve Thee in body and soul. Through Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Wednesday
“The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire
laborers into his vineyard” (Gospel). At the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour he returns to the
market place in search of laborers. At the eleventh hour, that is, at the time of the New Covenant,
he called us. “Why stand you here all the day idle? . . . Go you also into my vineyard,” we are told
in the Gospel on Septuagesima Sunday.
The first call. The householder, the heavenly Father, calls us to labor in His vineyard early
in the morning, that is, in our youth. At the time of our baptism He said to us, “Go you
also into My vineyard.” He enclosed us in His holy vineyard, the Church, and set us to
work. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul
and with thy whole mind and thy whole strength” (Mk 12:30). “I am the Lord thy God, . . .
thou shalt not have strange gods before Me” (Ex 20:2 f.). We have declared ourselves
ready to serve Him. We have entered into a solemn agreement to obey God, to observe
His commandments, to promote His honor and glory, and to extend His kingdom. We
are obliged to deny ourselves, to labor for Him, to pray to Him, to suffer for Him, and to
fight for Him. We should use our hands only to execute His will, our tongue only to speak
what He wills. Our feet must carry us only to those places where He would have us be.
Our hearts should love Him alone. All our strength, our powers, our talents, should be
consecrated to His service. He will allow us no other gods. We have the duty to give up
our own will and to live for Him alone. We must forsake our own desires and plans and
preferences. He must be our whole life. We are on earth for only one reason — to know
God, to love Him, and to serve Him. That is our calling.
The second call. With Septuagesima Sunday we enter the Easter cycle. The center of this
division of the Church year is the resurrection of Christ on Easter morning and our resurrection
from sin through baptism. Our preparation for Easter is the renewal of our baptism,
which should bring us a new and more perfect realization of the importance of the call we
have received and of the value of the precious gifts that came to us at baptism. It should renew
and deepen our consciousness also of the obligations we have undertaken. It should make
us ask ourselves seriously whether we have been faithful to these obligations. “I am the Lord
Thy God, . . . thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.” Have we accomplished the task for
which we were called into the vineyard? Could God still not say to us with truth: “Why stand
you here all the day idle?” Why are you occupied with so many vain and useless things? Why
do you serve so many false gods? Why are you so covetous of gold, solicitous for your body
and for its comforts? Why are you chasing so many vain shadows? Why are you so eager to
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