9781644135945

The Light of the World
a liar; because He believeth not in the testimony which God hath testified of His Son. And this
is the testimony that God hath given to us, eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He that hath
the Son, hath life” (1 Jn 5:9–12). The life of the Father is this, that in one eternal act He begets
His Son, giving Him the fullness of His perfections. By this act the Father expresses Himself,
His essence and being, in this one eternal Word. Every testimony which the Father manifests
to the world when pronouncing, “This is My beloved Son,” is but the audible reproduction of
this interior life of the Deity: “Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee” (Ps 2:7). “He
that believeth in the Son of God, hath the testimony of God in himself.” Whenever we accept
the testimony of the Father, believing and confessing that the babe in the manger, the youth in
the carpenter shop at Nazareth, the man of sorrows who was condemned to death, scourged,
crowned with thorns, and crucified, is the Son of God, then we proclaim with the Father the
divinity of His Son. Whenever we bend our knees before the Holy Eucharist and believe that
the Son of God is present on the altar with body and soul, with divinity and humanity, then we
act like the Father’s true children, proclaiming the divinity of His Son. If we consecrate all our
love to Jesus, placing all our strength and service at His disposal, then our life is a reproduction
of the life of the Father, and we are united with that life, possessing and sharing it. “He that
believeth in the Son of God, hath the testimony of God in himself.” With this testimony he
also has the life of God in himself.
The Church firmly believes in the testimony of the Father. Her entire life and being is a realization
of her creed: “I believe in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who was conceived by
the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and
was buried. . . . He rose again from the dead.” She steadfastly testifies to the divinity of Christ.
We must remain faithful to her testimony and her faith in Jesus, the Son of God, who became
man for our salvation.
To be a Christian means to believe in Jesus and in all that He taught and did for our salvation.
The more courageously we confess our adherence to the teaching of Jesus, to His example,
and to His Church, the more the kingdom of God and His life will take root in our souls.
The profound persuasion that Jesus is God and that He became man for our salvation is the
foundation and essence of our entire spiritual life. It makes us bow down our head in reverent
adoration and devotion to Him and His holy will.
Prayer
O almighty and eternal God, who in the abundance of Thy loving kindness art wont to give
beyond the deserts and desires of those who humbly pray; pour down upon us Thy mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and granting us those blessings
which we dare not presume to ask. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Friday
The liturgy of the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost connects the healing of the deaf and dumb
man with the conversion of St. Paul. “And last of all He was seen also by me, as one born out of
due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because
I persecuted the Church of God; but by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace in me
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