9781644135945

The Light of the World
Third Sunday after Easter
The Mass
The resurrection leads to the glorification of Christ and to His ascension. In His ascension the
words of the Apostle are verified: “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even
to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a
name which is above all names. That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that
are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that the
Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:8–11). Likewise that mysterious
pronouncement made by Christ after the Last Supper finds its fulfillment in the Ascension: “If
I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” ( Jn 16:7). Christ
is eager to assure us of His abiding presence among us. He sends us the Spirit, the Holy Ghost,
through whom He can be near to us to lead us and guide us. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth”
( Jn 6:64). After the departure of Christ, the apostles and all those who have died and risen
with Him in baptism, receive from the Holy Spirit the strength and courage to bear witness to
Christ. Filled with this power and light of the Holy Spirit, they are able to overcome the world.
They find it possible to endure persecution and suffering without faltering, and to live in the
world and yet to be not of the world. This is the fruit of Easter. The spirit of Easter is the spirit
of resurrection by means of baptism. It gives us unconquerable faith in the new powers that are
given to us. It makes us conscious of the fact that we are stronger than Satan and sin, stronger
than the world, the flesh, and even our own fallen nature. This spirit binds us to Him who, as
the victorious conqueror, sits at the right hand of the Father and operates in all those whom
He has called to His kingdom. He frees us from all attachment to the world, and directs our
thoughts and our desires to where Christ sits at the right hand of His Father and where He has
prepared a place for us in the house of His Father.
This Easter spirit fills our hearts, and guides and enlightens us in darkness and the necessities
of our earthly life, thus preparing us for the baptism of the Spirit on the feast of Pentecost.
The Mass for this Sunday must be interpreted in the light of this principle.
In the Mass of this Sunday the risen Christ announces for the first time His approaching departure.
He is to ascend to His Father, but He must leave us behind in the world with all its dangers.
However, the Easter spirit and the Easter light will guide us safely through the dangers and
trials of our earthly life. Filled with this Easter spirit, we rejoice at the thought of the departure
of Christ, and in spite of the certainty of our separation from Him, we break forth in a joyous
Easter song, the Alleluia. “Shout with joy to God all the earth, alleluia; sing ye a psalm to His
name, alleluia” (Introit). Ah, would that we were filled and vivified by this Easter spirit! For that
grace we pray in the Kyrie and in the Collect: “O God, . . . grant to all those who profess to be
Christians the grace to reject those things which are contrary to that name, and to follow such
things as are agreeable to it.” That is the spirit of Easter, the spirit of baptism, whose marvelous
power the Epistle explains. Have we really acquired this spirit? Has Easter really created this
spirit and this attitude in our souls? If it has, then the Alleluia verse can be applied to us: “The
Lord hath sent redemption to His people.” Then we shall have no fear of that which must be true
of every Christian: “It behooved Christ to suffer . . . and so to enter into His glory” (Alleluia).
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