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The Light of the World
Our reception of Holy Communion, like our reception of baptism, should not be a mere passive
reception. We must also give something, make our contribution to the offering made by the
Lord in the Holy Sacrifice. In order to receive worthily, we must place ourselves in a sacrificial
state of mind, as St. Paul so often reminds us. Just before the Christians in the ancient Church
received the sacred host from the priest in their outstretched hand, they crossed both arms on
their breasts in the form of a cross. Thus they reminded themselves of their duty to offer themselves
as a sacrifice when they received Holy Communion. In Holy Communion we receive
all and we must give all. Is that truly our attitude? We should make our own the sentiments
expressed by the famous French bishop, Bossuet:
Come to me, O holy body of my Redeemer. Come, O burning coal, and purge my lips.
Inflame my soul with the love that impelled You to accomplish my redemption. Come, O
precious blood which flowed forth from the sacred body, and envelop my heart with Your
fire. O my Savior, this is truly Thy body which was so cruelly lacerated. Would that I might
share each of Thy wounds with Thee! For through them Thou hast poured forth Thy blood
for me. The world will have none of me, and it were much better for me had I nothing to
do with it. We two are estranged, the world and I. Now I live for Christ, and He lives in me.
At least it should be so. This should be the fruit of my Holy Communion. Alas, that I am
yet so far from this ideal!
There is the tragedy. We receive Holy Communion so often, and yet offer to God and our
Savior little more than a negligent, worldly life.
Prayer
We beseech Thee, O Lord, that through the reception of Thy most holy sacrament we may be
made into a new creature in Christ our Lord. Amen.
Tuesday
“As newborn babes, alleluia, desire the rational milk without guile” (Introit). Thus the Church
addresses the newly baptized on Low Sunday; thus she speaks to those who communicate and
to all the faithful. To the Church we are throughout our lives merely “newborn babes.”
“Unless you . . . become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”; that is,
you cannot reach perfection. Such was Christ’s answer to the question proposed by the apostles:
“Who, thinkest thou, is the greater in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus calling unto Him a little
child, set him in the midst of them and said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted and
become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore
shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:1–4).
On another occasion Christ pointed to the Father in heaven saying: “Be you therefore perfect as
also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). We must all become like the pure, living God,
and at the same time remain like the innocent child which reposes on the breast of its mother.
The greatest man in the world is not the intellectual, nor the scholar, nor the performer of great
deeds, nor the ruler, nor the man of wealth; but rather he who is in all appearances the most
unimportant, the most unassuming, the most childlike — he who remains most like what he
was when he proceeded from the hands of his heavenly Father. The greatest accomplishment in
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