9781644135945

The Light of the World
“I am the salvation of the people.” We hear a great deal today about “self-redemption” and
about the exploration of our inner self, that from such an experience we may expect all the
redemption and rebirth that is necessary. Many persons therefore seek to construct their
spiritual life on a purely natural basis and hope by this means to triumph over their lower
nature. This reliance on self can lead only to their destruction, for the will unconsciously but
most certainly becomes the prey of self-deception. Such self-reliant persons fail to perceive
the weaknesses of human nature. They cannot understand how even our highest aspirations
are vitiated by so much vanity, selfishness, covetousness, and greed for power. They do
not realize how much hypocrisy, harshness, and violence is contained even in our desire
for righteousness; how much sensuality there is even in our spirituality. How erroneous it
is to suppose that we can depend on our own spiritual strength and ability, or that we can
form ourselves into perfect men by our own powers, and triumph over the weaknesses and
disabilities of our fallen nature! With good reason, then, the liturgy beseeches God today
that we may be protected from adversities from within and from without. It prays that by
means of His all-powerful grace He may protect us from all that could injure us in body or
soul, and that we may devote ourselves to whatever is according to His will (Collect). It is
not our own spirituality, nor our own nature, nor our own will, nor our own ideals, nor our
own plans and provisions, nor flesh and blood that can save us and redeem us; but only the
grace of God, which reaches us through Christ our head. “I am the salvation of the people; . . .
in whatever tribulation they shall cry to Me, I shall hear them.”
“Come to Me all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Mt 11:28).
He will give us light, understanding, fortitude, joy, peace, strength, inner freedom, purity, and
victory over all that springs from the world below and that could overcome our souls. Christ,
whose human nature is filled with the purity and the holiness of the divinity, possesses the
fullness of life, of holiness, of strength, of purity and immortality. He possesses these things
not only in Himself and for Himself, but for us also. He is for us a model of holiness. By taking
Christ as our model we come to know the “new man” which we must become and the ideal
toward which we must strive — the new man free of sin, “who according to God is created in
justice and holiness of truth” (Epistle). He is, moreover, our salvation through His teaching
and commandments. “Attend, O My people, to My law; incline your ears to the words of My
mouth” (Introit). He is our salvation also through the operation of His grace in us. He, the vine,
lives His life in us the branches. His life enlivens our spirit, our will, our very being. He makes
us strong, pure, and holy. He is the strength of the wine and the nourishment of the bread that
sustains us. By our use of the Eucharist, His divine life is renewed, increased, and strengthened
in us, and we tend toward the fullness of all sanctity. The Holy Eucharist is the guarantee of our
eventual resurrection in the body and that salvation which is made certain through the merits of
our divine Savior. To whom shall we go that we may have the fullness of life and the fulfillment
of all desires? “Come to Me all you that labor and are burdened.”
As long as we hold fast to Christ, our salvation is assured. Separation from Christ means the
loss of our salvation. If we refuse to accept His doctrine, if we refuse to obey His commands, if
we refuse to follow His counsels, if we fail to cooperate with the operation of His grace in us,
we shall not be saved. Only when we give ourselves to Him completely will He work in us the
fullness of His salvation, the fullness of His grace and blessing. Christ desires our entire being.
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