9781644135945

The Light of the World
confidently seek help from Him. “Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication; be
attentive to me and hear me” (Offertory). “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for man hath trodden
me underfoot; all the day long he hath afflicted me” (Gradual).
Today in the liturgy we are like the heathen Naaman. In the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice we
come to the great prophet, Christ. We submit ourselves in faith, humility, and confidence to His
grace, which we are to receive when He comes to us in Holy Communion. “He that eateth My
flesh and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me and I in him” ( Jn 6:57). “In God I will trust. I will
not fear what man can do against me” (Introit), because by virtue of my baptism Christ lives in
me as the head lives in its members. In Him “I can do all things” (Phil 4:13).
Whatever we obtain now from Christ is only the beginning. Our salvation will be assured
only when we have entered safely into eternity and have arrived at the eternal Easter. To that
happy day we look forward when we say the Communion prayer: “When the Lord shall have
turned away the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad.” With firm
confidence in God we repeat: “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world
to come.” To obtain this resurrection, we must come to the great prophet in the land of Israel,
to Christ in His holy Church.
“He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). If the
chosen people could lose the salvation that had been promised them, why cannot the same
happen to us? What is our protection against such a catastrophe? It is humility. If we have faith
and submit humbly to Christ and His Church, we shall not fall. We must cling to Christ and to
the things of God with faith and reverence.
Prayer
We beseech Thee, O Lord, pour forth Thy grace into our hearts, that as we abstain from carnal
food, so also we may withdraw our senses from harmful excesses.
Let Thy mercy, O Lord, succor us, that we may be worthy to be snatched by Thy protection
from the dangers that threaten us, and to be saved by Thy deliverance. Through Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Tuesday
The Sacrifice of the Mass today is celebrated in the church of the holy virgin St. Prudentiana, on
the spot where St. Peter once lived and worked in Rome. The virgin Prudentiana carries in her
hand the vessel of oil, the vessel of the love of God. “She overcame numberless trials, provided
an honorable burial for a large number of holy martyrs, and distributed her entire fortune to
the poor for the love of Christ” (Martyrology).
“In those days a certain woman cried to the prophet Eliseus saying: Thy servant, my husband
is dead. . . . And behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him. And Eliseus
said to her: . . . Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she answered: I thy handmaid have
nothing in my house but a little oil to anoint me. And he said to her: Go borrow all thy neighbors’
empty vessels, not a few. And go in and shut thy door; . . . and pour out thereof into all those
vessels; and when they are full take them away.” The woman did as she was told, and when all the
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