9781644135945

The Light of the World
Monday
“The Lord is the strength of His people, and the protector of the salvation of His anointed”
(Introit). We are His people in the community of the Church; we are His “anointed”
(Christians), having been anointed with holy chrism in baptism: “I anoint thee with the
oil of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord, that thou mayest have life everlasting.” The Sunday
Gospel explains how He is “the strength of His people and the protector of the salvation
of His anointed.”
“There was a great multitude with Jesus” in the desert, and they had nothing to eat. They
followed Him, eager to listen to His words and happy to be in His presence. We are that
multitude. We were united with Jesus in baptism, when, with joyful devotion, we confessed:
“I believe in Jesus Christ, and in the communion of saints.” Today we also acknowledge Him,
His gospel, His principles, and His example; we try to keep faithfully what we promised in
baptism. Daily we renounce again, even more perfectly than we did yesterday, Satan, sin,
self-love, and the vanities and pleasure of life. The world has many followers, even among
the baptized, who do not keep the promises they made to Christ, refusing, more or less, to
follow Him, because to follow Him is too hard for them, too uncomfortable, too much out
of date, and offers too few advantages. Let us follow our Lord all the more faithfully into the
desert, on the rough roads of voluntary renunciation and poverty, rejoicing in hard work,
sufferings of all kind, and humiliations and offenses inflicted by our fellow men. To be with
Him and to have Him is all that matters. “Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God and
His justice” (Mt 6:33). As members of Christ we know that we are united with Him in the
most intimate communion of life. His salvation and His grace have been poured forth into
our souls in abundance. “He that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness” ( Jn 8:12). We have
been delivered “from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son
of His love” (Col 1:13). Thus we become “fellow citizens of the saints,” of the strong and
the pure of heart, “domestics of God” (Eph 2:19), in order to become hereafter “joint heirs
with Christ,” the Son of God (Rom 8:17). We follow Him, knowing no one else to whom
we may give our hearts, our mind, our strength, and our life.
“I have compassion on the multitude.” The multitude had already been with the Lord three
days and had nothing to eat. His compassionate and merciful heart urges Him to provide for
them, that they may go home contented. We are this multitude. Following the Lord on the hard
and rough road of this life, we must face a long journey which leads us through desert trails, over
hot sand and under burning sun, with hardly a single oasis to offer us shade and refreshing water.
How are we to reach our home with the heavenly Father? Are we not sure to faint in the way?
But “the Lord is the strength of His people, and the protector of the salvation of His anointed.”
Being miraculously nourished by the bread of the Holy Eucharist, we shall attain our goal,
fortified by this food. We daily witness on our altars the miracle of the consecration of bread
into His holy body and of wine into His holy blood. Commanding His disciples, the priests of
the Church, to administer this bread to the baptized, He works the miracle of His omnipotence
daily at the Consecration during the Mass. Through the miracle of love and self-sacrifice for us in
Holy Communion, He is indeed “the strength of His people, and the protector of the salvation
of His anointed.” Blessed are they that follow the Lord into the desert; He takes care of them
through the manna of the Holy Eucharist.
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