9781644135945

The Light of the World
Sometimes even without noticing how frivolously we act, we prefer earthly pleasures and goods,
perhaps even forbidden and sinful things, to the gifts of grace, and we thus reject this precious
gift of God. Failing to understand the importance of judging in the light of faith, we think and
judge according to merely natural human principles, and thus adjust our standards to those of
the world. We likewise underestimate grace when we act out of merely natural human motives,
when we fulfill our duties and take up our crosses without the support of faith and the ideals
of grace. We make light of prayer, which alone can assure us of the graces necessary for our
eternal salvation, and as a result our hearts, like trees, wither away for want of nourishment,
even though outwardly our work flourishes. Above all, we neglect to sanctify our thoughts,
our words, and our works by supernatural intentions, thus failing to make them meritorious
for ourselves, for the Church, and for our fellow men. “If thou also hadst known . . . the things
that are to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thy eyes.” Because we underestimate the
necessity of grace and things supernatural, — the sacraments, the Church, her doctrines, and
her precepts — we remain sterile and make no headway toward our heavenly destiny. Thus we
oppose the interests of God, of His Church, of the souls of others, and of our own soul as well.
We have good reason to fear that the Lord will weep over us, too, when we disregard His grace
and love, preferring instead the vanities of this world.
Let us beseech the Lord to deliver us from the misfortune of underestimating the value of grace
and the sonship of God. “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; and defend me from them
that rise up against me” (Alleluia). These enemies are our worldliness and our lack of faith.
Praying thus, we implore the Lord for all our brethren in Christ.
“My house is the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves” (Gospel). We are
this house and temple of God as long as we are in possession of the sonship of God. By virtue
of this intimate relationship to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost dwell within us,
rendering our soul a house of prayer. We, on our part, glorify the divine guest dwelling in our
soul by our service of charity, homage, and devotion. “But you have made it a den of thieves.”
This sad state of affairs has occurred to us if we prefer worldly things to the grace of being a child
of God and of living for the Father. Then we profane and desecrate this sanctuary by worldly,
vain, and sinful thoughts and desires, by bad conduct towards the God living within us, by our
many infidelities, and by our disobedience towards His holy will. “He that thinketh himself to
stand, let him take heed lest he fall” (Epistle).
Prayer
Let Thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy suppliant people; and that Thou
mayest grant them their petitions, make them ask such things as shall please Thee. Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thursday
As Jesus rides solemnly into Jerusalem, the multitude cries: “Hosanna to the son of David:
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mt 21:9). Jesus, however, weeps over the
city. He loves Jerusalem, and because He loves it He is deeply grieved that it has not known
the time of its visitation.
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