9781644135945

The Light of the World
full of activity, a full, eternal life spent in company with the blessed and with God, who is the
fountainhead of all life and happiness. After this “little while” we shall experience complete
satisfaction, we shall have every desire fulfilled, and be perfect in God. “Father, I will that where
I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me” ( Jn 17:24). A future of perfect bliss
lies infallibly ahead of me. What, then, are the momentary trials and difficulties I suffer now? Two
things are absolutely certain: that life on earth is brief and transient; and that after a little while
there will be an eternal life of glory (cf. Rom 8:18). Indeed, they are inseparably connected. By
means of this short life I earn my eternal glory. “These that are clothed in white robes, who are
they? And whence came they?” John is asked in the Apocalypse. When he is unable to answer,
he is told: “These are they who are come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes
and have made them white in the blood of the lamb” (7:13 f.). “Out of great tribulation.” That
is the surest pledge and the best guarantee of a happy eternity.
Should not our hearts be filled with joy and blessed hope? We are one with the risen Christ.
This union is the source of all our good fortune. If we truly believed and had full confidence,
we would exclaim, “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
The Christian may expect such a resurrection. “A little while . . . and I will see you again, and
your heart shall rejoice.”
Prayer
O God, who hast willed that Thy Son be crucified that we might be freed from the power of
the devil, grant unto Thy servants that they may obtain the grace of the resurrection. Through
the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Friday
“A little while, and you shall not see Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me, because
I go to the Father” (Gospel). The risen Christ must present Himself to the Father. He belongs,
not in this world, but in the realm of heaven. Therefore He must “go to the Father.”
The risen Christ, our head, stands before us. “I go to the Father.” In Christ there is an inner
sanctuary, a holy of holies, which none can approach except the Father. In the inmost depths
of His soul He is free from all that is merely human, from all earthly things, and is consecrated
exclusively to the Father. “I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” ( Jn 16:32). The life
of Christ is one of complete preoccupation with the Father. He is one in heart with the Father;
completely at rest with Him. In all things the eyes of Christ see the Father. His most urgent desire
is to serve the Father, to live for Him, and to offer Himself up to the Father. With perfect devotion
and love, with childlike trust and confidence, He abandons Himself to the will of the Father. In
the Garden of Olives, He prays, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Mt 26:39). “I go to the Father,”
and will be united to Him in an inseparable union of life and love. For this reason His soul is
so full of confidence, so detached, courageous, calm, mild, and steadfast. “I go to the Father.”
We, the baptized, are the members of the risen Christ. “Therefore, if you be risen with
Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God” (Col
3:1). “Lift up your hearts.” We answer, “We have lifted them up to the Lord.” Christ has taken
up His abode in the inmost sanctuary of our soul, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
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