9781644135945

The Light of the World
shut up his bowels from him, how doth the charity of God abide in him?” (1 Jn 3:17.) “And
whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of
a disciple, amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward” (Mt 10:42).
“When we pray,” says St. Augustine in explaining this Gospel, “we are all God’s beggars. We
stand before the door of the great Father . . . desiring to receive something; and that something
is God Himself. What does the beggar ask of you? Bread. And what do you ask of God but
Christ, who says: ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven’?” When we approach
the Father and ask Him for something, we may be sure that “with the same measure that you
mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.” “Give, and it shall be given to you.” Give generously,
and you will receive in abundance; give sparingly, and your return will be small. Have
we considered earnestly this law of giving and receiving?
“Seekest thou mercy from God? Then be thou merciful. . . . Seekest thou something from God?
Then give, and it shall be given to you” (St. Augustine). Give and forgive, that is the spirit of
Christ and the spirit of Christianity.
Prayer
O God, the strength of those that hope in Thee, favorably hear our supplications; and since
without Thee mortal infirmity can do nothing, grant the help of Thy grace that, in fulfilling
Thy commandments, we may please Thee both in will and in action. Through Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Wednesday
“I pray . . . for them also who through their word [the preaching of the apostles] shall believe in
Me. That they all may be one as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee; that they also may be one
in Us” ( Jn 17:20 f.). The Holy Trinity, the trinity in unity and the unity in trinity, is the model
and the source of our unity in love.
The Holy Trinity is a type of the union of love which exists in the Christian family. The life
of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity is a life of most intimate unity. Apart from the
distinction of persons, they are one in nature, in knowledge, in understanding, and in love.
For them there can be no isolation, no consideration of self apart from the other persons,
no life for themselves apart. In the bosom of the Holy Trinity there is only the closest community
of interest in one another, for one another, and to one another. “As Thou, Father, in
Me and I in Thee.” The Christian family, the religious community, the Christian community,
should all pattern their life of unity after this example of multiplicity in unity and unity in
multiplicity. This unity of His members is the cherished wish of the Savior, expressed in
His priestly prayer the night before He died: “That they may be one.” In what manner are
they to be one? “As Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee.” What a sublime and divine model!
“I in them, and Thou in Me.” And to what purpose? “That they may be made perfect in one.”
The main purpose, however, of this Christian unity is that “the world may know that Thou
hast sent Me and hast loved them, as Thou hast also loved Me” ( Jn 17:23). In life we honor
and acknowledge the divine Trinity principally by living in perfect unity and harmony
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