9781644135945

The Light of the World
Monday
The theme of today’s Mass is emphasized particularly through the Introit, the Collect, the
Offertory, and the Communion. We hear loud supplications for help, together with a prayer
of gratitude for the help we received. “Save me, O God, by Thy name, and deliver me in Thy
strength” (Introit). “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; and defend me from them that
rise up against me” (Gradual). We also hear: “Behold, God is my helper, and the Lord is the
protector of my soul; turn back the evils upon my enemies, and cut them off in Thy truth, O
Lord my protector” (Introit). These are the characteristics of the prayer of the Church. The
people of Israel, once chosen by God but later rejected by Him, make themselves the implacable
opponents and enemies of Christ and His Church. The never-ending fight of darkness against
light, of the Synagogue against the Church, of the realm of Antichrist against Christianity, is
typified by the fight of Saul against David (Psalm 53: Introit and Gradual).
“Save me, O God, by Thy name.” David flees before Saul into a hiding place in the desert of Ziph,
southeast of Hebron. The people of that district betray the hiding place of the refugee to King
Saul and offer to lead Saul with his army to the place. David has no refuge but his God. With his
growing need his belief in the power and love of God also grows, and so does his confidence in
God’s nearness and willingness to help. “Save me, O God, by Thy name, and deliver me in Thy
strength.” His confidence is the better founded since his persecutors do not care about God
and His commandments, about truth and justice. They do not heed God’s judgments and do
not attempt to refrain from injustice. And behold! God is there and helps. “Behold, God is my
helper, and the Lord is the protector of my soul.”
When Saul and his men had surrounded David so that an escape was impossible, Saul
was informed that the Philistines had invaded his country. The disaster Saul wished to inflict
on David now fell back on himself. Saul had to return without delay in order to save his people
and his crown. “Behold, God is my helper, and the Lord is the protector of my soul; turn back
the evils upon my enemies, and cut them off in Thy truth.”
The fight between Saul and David symbolizes the fight between the Synagogue and the
Church. Christ will always be persecuted in His Church and in His members. But “God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able; but will make
also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it” (Epistle). “God is my helper,” the
Church proclaims triumphantly. For two thousand years her own experience has taught her
this truth. “God is my helper,” we, the children of the Church, also sing with joy. We cannot
be spared a continual struggle, but God is faithful; He is our helper. We also have frequently
experienced His help.
“Turn back the evils upon our enemies, and cut them off in Thy truth, O Lord my protector.”
The Synagogue has been the natural enemy of Christ and His Church from the time of the
first Pentecost until this day. It wanted to destroy the young Church; money was not wanting,
neither was influence with Caesar in Rome. The Synagogue inspired the terrible persecutions
of the Christians under Nero and Domitian; it has been allied with all the powers of Antichrist
to this day. The Church has only God and the weapon of prayer, but she will conquer. A striking
pledge of her victory over Antichrist and those powers that seek to dig her grave is the
punishment of the city of Jerusalem threatened in today’s Gospel: “The days shall come upon
thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee; . . . [they] shall beat thee flat to the ground,
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