9781644135945

The Light of the World
are members one of another. . . . Let not the sun go down upon your anger.” Such is the wedding
garment, the new man. He who does not wear this garment, cannot take part in the banquet of
heaven. He may have found a place on earth in the hall of the Church, but when the King comes
(for judgment at the last day) He will ask: “Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having on
a wedding garment?” And then He will command His waiters: “Bind his hands and feet, and
cast him into the exterior darkness” (Gospel). The return of Christ at the end of the world will
bring the separation of the cockle and the wheat.
“I am the salvation of the people,” the salvation of all those who perform their duties faithfully,
as they promised to do at their baptism, and who daily “put on the new man.” While celebrating
Mass they bury the old man, the man of sin, the man of passion, the man of evil habits; and they
devote themselves to Christ, to God, to God’s will and commandments. They live according to
the will of God and for His honor. Thus they daily put on the new man through celebration of
the Mass. They enrich their wedding garment always more and more, and they make themselves
ready to partake of the Holy Sacrifice. Here the words of the Offertory are fulfilled, “Thou wilt
quicken me, O Lord; . . . and Thy right hand shall save me.”
Meditation
The liturgy today leads us into the brilliantly lit and festively decorated banquet hall, which is
thronged with guests dressed in resplendent wedding garments, awaiting eagerly the arrival of
the King. The hall is the Church; we, the baptized, are the guests. The wedding garment is the
garment of sanctifying grace. We are all waiting for the arrival of the Lord, the King.
“Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, who according to God
is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Epistle). The nearer the day of the return of the
Lord approaches, the more insistent become the admonitions of the Church: “You know
not the day nor the hour” (Mt 25:13). “As in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the
Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark, and they knew
not till the flood came and took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of Man
be. . . . Watch ye, therefore, because ye know not what hour your Lord will come” (Mt 24:37
ff.). The Church wishes that we be ready when the Lord comes at the hour of our death.
We shall be ready if we wear the wedding garment of sanctifying grace. We shall be ready if
we renew our inner disposition, if at each Mass, at each Holy Communion, at each sincere
prayer, at each stimulation of grace, we put on the new man in our thoughts, our judgment,
our will, and our actions.
In the Christian life there is only one direction, forward and upward. If we fail to progress,
if we cease to exert ourselves every day and every moment, we shall lose ground, we shall
revert to the old man, to separation from God. We shall be ready to meet the King if we strive
incessantly and do not weaken. That is what the Epistle means when it admonishes: “Be ye
renewed.” The Church fears that we might become weak, that we might neglect grace and thus
lose our wedding garment of sanctifying grace. She fears that, like the foolish virgins, we may go
to meet the Lord without the necessary oil in our lamps. She fears lest, when the bridegroom
comes, we shall not be ready and we shall be excluded. “I know you not.”
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