9781644135945

The Light of the World
persuaded that they are for our best interest. Our human weakness will rebel at the temptations,
misfortunes, and trials that will overtake us, but we shall embrace them because
it is His will.
We ourselves are the Gentiles, who in the Epistle send their kings to worship the divine King.
The wise men of the Gospel, who come from the East, are our ambassadors. In the Offertory
the kings of Tharsis and the islands make their submission in our name. Like the wise men, we
now approach Christ humbly and in the spirit of reverent prayer. Only in this way can we hope
to learn to know Him and to find grace to fulfill His will. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom
13:14). Let us put on Christ externally by giving ourselves to unceasing prayer, by Christian
mortification, and by continual self-forgetfulness. We must achieve self-control and meekness
of heart, “that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies” (2 Cor 4:10). We are
to put on Christ internally by directing all our thoughts and desires according to the will of the
heavenly Father. The degree of our success in this effort will be gauged by the measure of our
love of our neighbor, and by the extent of our submission to the will of God. We should look
forward to the time when we shall be so firmly established in Christ that we may say with St.
Paul, “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2:20).
In every Mass that we attend we should renew our resolution to put on Christ. When
we offer the bread and wine, we should think of ourselves as wise men bringing gifts to
the divine King. At the Consecration of the Mass, the infant King will come down to us to
accept our gifts and consecrate them by this prayer. In this way the value of our offering is
made acceptable to God. At the time of Holy Communion, He will leave His manger and
set up His throne in our heart and rule over our thoughts and actions during the day. The
heavenly Father will bless all that we do, in Him and by Him and through Him. No situation
can arise in our daily life that He cannot sanctify and turn to the advantage of our soul, to
the benefit of the Church, and the honor of God. All that is required of us is that we make
an efficacious intention to perform all our actions in conformity with the will of Christ and
for the honor and glory of God. By our possession of Christ we have become precious in
the eyes of God, and we are rich beyond all understanding.
Prayer
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that what we celebrate with solemn office, we may attain
by the understanding of a purified mind. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Fourth Day in the Octave
The wise men of the East found the child, offered their gifts, and returned to their homes. “And
having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another
way into their country” (Mt 2:12).
“By another way.” St. Gregory the Great explains in a homily, used in the office today, the meaning
of this Gospel.
The wise men teach us a great lesson in that they return by another way into their
own country. By thus doing as they had been warned, they make known to us what we,
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