9781644135945

The Light of the World
to love the Father. Love called the Word of God into the world; love took Him from the
world through the suffering of the cross; love calls Him back daily to our altars and confines
Him to our tabernacles. When we receive Him in Holy Communion, He gives Himself to
us in His entirety and fills us with His own being. How can a soul fail to love God with all
its strength when the source of love dwells within it? Its thoughts, words, and deeds should
now be centered upon the love of God.
Holy Communion should enkindle in us the ardor of love and prompt us to direct all
the acts of our life, even the most insignificant, toward the love of God. It should inspire us
to be instant in our prayer, prompt in the practice of charity, firm in our works of mortification,
and ever concerned about the salvation of our soul. Holy Communion should lead
us eventually to be so occupied with God that we forget ourselves and no longer know or
recognize anything but Him, His will, and His honor. “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth
in me” (Gal 2:20).
We need the pleasures and satisfactions of this life which God has provided for us. But how
often we rest satisfied with these things for their own sake! Who can free us from this danger?
“The right hand of the Lord.” We should examine ourselves to learn whether our attachment
to our work and the pleasures which God allows us are sane and healthy. Are they leading us to
God, or are we seeking pleasure for its own sake?
Do we trouble ourselves after receiving Communion in the morning to ask ourselves
whether our actions are being given the proper direction? Is the love of God the motive for
our work? This consideration is important, for the motive for which we perform an action is
more important than the success or failure of the work itself. It is important, therefore, that we
attempt to motivate our work properly. All our actions, even the most insignificant, should be
performed with the purpose of honoring God, for the most commonplace action, the most
trifling sacrifice, the smallest victory, becomes great when accomplished with this disposition.
But the motive of all must be love.
Prayer
May Thy gifts, O God, detach us from earthly pleasures and ever strengthen us with heavenly
nourishment. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
The Mass
Just as the power and majesty of the Lord was illustrated last Sunday during the storm at
sea, so today it is shown in His control of the cockle which the enemy sowed in the field
of the Church. The cockle and wheat represent the forces of good and evil, which oppose
each other here on earth. They form two mighty armies, the army of Christ and the army
of the Antichrist, struggling for mastery in the same field, the soul of man. It was to be
expected that the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth would meet with opposition,
contradiction, and persecution. But both the cockle and the wheat, the opponents
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