9781644135945

The Light of the World
(Epistle). We must practice charity and break away completely from the world. The task which
Easter places upon us is not an easy one.
Our obligation to renounce the world is emphasized by the Gospel: “I go to the Father.”
We, too, must go to the Father; we must withdraw from the handicaps and the restrictions
imposed on us by Original Sin. That is the real significance of Easter and of the baptism which
we have received. He who now is about to go to the Father, goes not for His own benefit alone,
nor to reap all the profit for Himself. There He is to act as our intermediary, and by praying in
His name we may expect to find salvation. Through Christ, our intermediary, our prayers and
desires also ascend to the Father.
When we sing the Credo, we ask resolutely and confidently for the grace to act always in
the spirit of Easter. We express our faith in the Credo, and our consciousness of victory in the
Offertory: “O bless the Lord our God, ye Gentiles, and make the voice of His praise to be heard;
who hath set my soul to live, and hath not suffered my feet to be moved.”
“I came forth from the Father and am come into the world. Again I leave the world and go to the
Father.” What is here said in the Gospel becomes a reality in the Mass. During the Consecration
of the Mass He descends into the world as God, mystically and sacramentally. We greet Him
joyfully by singing, “Holy, holy, holy. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Now
we take the place of the disciples in the Gospel, and receive with joy the comforting message of
the Lord: “If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto you have not
asked anything in My name.” Hitherto, that is, before you received baptism, before it became
possible for you to pray with Him and through Him in the Mass, you had not asked anything
in His name. But now the prayer of the sacrificing Christian becomes one with the prayer of
Christ in the Sacrifice of the Mass; it becomes substantially united to that of Christ. Just as
the bread is changed by the prayer of Christ, so our prayer is changed into Christ’s prayer and
carried by His pure hands to the throne of the Father. For this reason the Father, in the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, pours forth the love which He bears for Christ upon us also who sacrifice
with Him. The Father carries out the promise made by Christ: “The Father Himself loveth
you, because you have loved Me” (Gospel). Therefore after the Consecration we can say with
childlike confidence: “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Thus we can lay aside and forget all that
is earthly and unimportant, and arise with Christ to a new life; and when He offers Himself,
we, too, can daily “go to the Father.”
Through Christ and in Christ we become children of the Father and of His love. “The
Father Himself loves you” and gives proof of this love, not only in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
but also in Holy Communion. “Sing ye to the Lord, alleluia.” Holy Communion is God’s answer
to the prayer we offer in union with Christ, His Son. It is His reply to our resolve: “I will go to
the Father.” “The Father Himself loveth you because you have loved Me and have believed that
I came out from God” (Gospel).
Meditation
“Declare it with the voice of joy and let it be heard, alleluia; declare it even to the ends of
the earth: The Lord hath delivered His people, alleluia” (Introit). From the Christian point
of view the most important of all truths is the fact that men have been redeemed and that
they are the children of God. Now heaven has been opened again to us, and so, too, the
366