9781644135945

The Light of the World
marvelous works of His love. “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead rise
again.” Indeed we need expect no other. Christ is He that is to come; He is here. We receive Him
in our hearts with joy and thanksgiving. We unite ourselves to Him in the Sacrifice of the Mass
and in Holy Communion; in order to share His life more intimately here in the Holy Sacrifice,
in Holy Communion, and at His feet in the tabernacle, we learn each day anew that it is He who
works and lives in us. He it is whom we were to expect and whom we need so much. He alone is
all that we need. In Him we possess all things: truth and life, God and heaven.
“Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem; . . . the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be
seen upon thee” (Is 60:1 f.). By Jerusalem the liturgy has in mind Mary, the Mother of God,
the Church, the religious community, the Christian family, the convent. “The Lord shall arise
upon thee” in Mass, in Holy Communion, and at Christmas. The fruit of this? “His glory,” His
spirit, His life, His virtues, His patience, His charity, His love, enlivens the Church and each of
its members. The Christian is another Christ.
“Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind one towards another,
according to Jesus Christ; that with one mind and with one mouth you may glorify God and
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive one another as Christ also hath received
you unto the honor of God” (Epistle). Would that these words of the Epistle fell not on deaf
ears. How far removed are we still from the true spirit of Advent!
Prayer
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way for Thy only-begotten Son, that we may be able
to serve Thee with clean hearts purified by the coming of Him who liveth and reigneth with
Thee forever and ever. Amen.
Tuesday
During this week the liturgy reveals the imposing figure of John the Baptist. He is cast into
prison, but even there he continues his mission of preparing the way for Christ and seeks to
direct his own disciples to Christ. He knows Jesus, and only Jesus.
Even in his youth John had forsaken all and had withdrawn into the silence of the desert. “And the
child grew and was strengthened in spirit; and was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation
to Israel,” says St. Luke (1:80). He is a man given to the spirit, to the inner life, to silence, and the
company of God. He never left his beloved solitude to seek his relatives or Him whose way he
had been sent to prepare. Yet how devoted he was to Christ! He is conscious of only one force,
and that is the will of God and the voice of the Holy Spirit that accompanies him. He wears a
garment of camel’s hair and a leathern girdle. His food is wild honey and locusts, the only fare
afforded by the desert. He indulges in no comforts; his home is a cave, and his bed is a stone.
The day comes when he is to manifest himself to Israel, and he appears on the banks of the
Jordan. He preaches penance, for the kingdom of God is at hand. He baptizes the multitudes
that come to him. By receiving this baptism they acknowledge their willingness to do penance
for their sins. They flock to him by the thousands to hear him. They believe he is the promised
Messiah or the prophet Elias, but he acknowledges frankly: “I am the voice of one crying out
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