9781644135945

The Light of the World
of temptations, troubling us with many evil desires. By stirring up our imagination he awakens
in us wrong, sinful thoughts. By working on our lower nature he tries to seduce us to sin; he
influences our exterior senses by inducing us to see, hear, feel, and experience sinful things. He
also tries to harm us by inflicting misfortunes on us through the power granted him by God. To
what extent the devil is able to exert his troubling and disturbing influence in this respect, the
Church teaches us in her exorcisms and blessings and by her use of holy water.
Sometimes it happens that the devil is given the power to take possession of the bodies
of men and to use them as if he himself were the soul of such bodies, or to interfere with a
man’s actions. We know of cases in the lives of saints when the devil persecuted and tortured
them, trying to wean them from their faithfulness to God and Christ. Thus we are all exposed
to the influence of the devil and are always in danger of being deceived by the father of lies
and of being dragged into sin. How many have been deceived and misled, thus walking on
the road that leads to eternal damnation! Not without reason the Church prays to God for us
that He may give us the grace to withstand the temptations of the devil. She does not expect
us to escape all temptations, but she prays that we may not be deceived by him and become
unfaithful to God.
The only way that we can follow God is through holy love. “Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the
greatest and the first commandment” (Gospel). This commandment contains all other commandments;
it is the great duty that includes all other duties. Love is the highest expression
of man’s efforts. Whenever I love, I devote my whole being and all my faculties to the service
and interests of him whom I love. We are obliged to love. “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God.”
Nothing else matters; all other things are to be loved only in Him and for His sake. “Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.” A weakhearted charity does not satisfy the Lord;
we have to love Him with our whole heart and with every part of our being, with our intellect
and will, with our heart and all our affections and passions, with all the strength even of our
bodies. We have to love God at every moment. He asks for a pure intention, an intention without
any selfish consideration of our own profit, honor, or satisfaction. All things that life gives
us we are obliged to use for God’s interests and honor. That means we have to love God in all
things for His sake; we have to seek Him and do everything for His honor. That is real piety, for
it means seeking God alone with a pure intention. That we may obtain this grace, the Church
this week asks for us the grace to follow God with pure hearts (Collect). It is our duty to seek
God with a pure intention and with pure love.
Two masters are contending for us for time and eternity: Christ and Antichrist (the devil). With
our free will we have to decide which one we will serve. On one side stands the Lord, who shall
return some day for judgment; on the other side the devil tries to win us over to him. We must
renounce the devil, as we did on the day of our baptism; we must cling to the Lord.
The more we seek God and live in accordance with His commandment of love, the safer
we are against the temptations and persecutions of the devil. It is not necessary that we see
the devil in everything and fear him; we should rather see the Lord in everything and love
Him. When we seek only the love of God, we have the power to overcome Satan and his
pomps. Therefore we should strive, first of all, to “follow after charity” (1 Cor 14:1). “Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God.” We secure the love of God through the Holy Eucharist, which
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