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The Light of the World
to obtain favors or to escape difficulties. If these petitioners receive their requests, do they offer
up prayers of thanksgiving? “Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no
one found to return and give glory to God but this stranger” (Lk 17:17 f.). This complaint of
the Lord could very well be applied to us Christians also. We are so sparing in our thanks because
our love is so meager. Gratitude is so much a work of love that we shall spend our whole
eternity giving thanks to God as we gaze upon Him and love Him eternally. Here on earth our
Holy Mother the Church renders thanks to God in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We should
join her in this spirit.
Prayer
Watch over Thy household, we beseech Thee, O Lord, with continual mercy, that through Thy
protection it may be freed from all adversities and be devoted to good works. Through Christ
our Lord. Amen.
Saturday
“The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king who would take an account of his servants. And when
he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him that owed him ten thousand talents”
(Gospel). The liturgy has us in mind when it speaks of the debtor who owed ten thousand talents.
“One was brought to him that owed him ten thousand talents,” that is, an immense sum of
money. Such an immense debt we owe to God because of our sins; for even one mortal sin far
surpasses such a debt to God. A single mortal sin is such a heinous offense against God that
man could never make satisfaction for it. Even the severest and most excruciating penance
could not satisfy for such a sin. The gravity of an offense is always measured by the dignity of
the one offended. Sin is an offense of infinite gravity because the infinite God is the one who is
offended. How can man, who is finite, make amends for an offense against the infinite majesty
of God? It is absolutely impossible for a sinner himself to make reparation for the injury he has
done through his sin. Not even the merits and satisfactions of all the men who have ever lived
could make amends for one single sin. We who are sinners are, then, debtors who owe to God a
debt of ten thousand talents. We have contracted an immense debt with God through Original
Sin and through our personal sins, through our violations of the laws of God and the Church
in thought, word, and deed.
“Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all” (Gospel). We can pay our debt to God,
however, by making use of the merits and satisfactions of Christ our Savior. He who is both God
and man is alone capable of paying our debt to God. This debt He has paid through His suffering
and death. Through baptism He has united us with His sufferings and death so that they become
ours, “just as if we ourselves had suffered and died” (St. Thomas Aquinas). Daily during the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we can offer the sufferings and death of Christ for our sins. We can
offer His merits, His satisfactions, His precious blood to the Father as full payment for the debt
that we owe. The Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice. “Receive, O holy Father, almighty and eternal
God, this spotless host, which I thine unworthy servant offer unto Thee, my living and true God,
for my countless sins, offenses, and negligences” (prayer at the Offertory). “Graciously receive,
O Lord, the sacrifices with which Thou hast willed that Thou shouldst be appeased and our
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