9781644135945

The Light of the World
A submissive will. For the reception of grace and the efficacious application of it, we can best
dispose ourselves by imitating Mary. We should pronounce a perfect fiat to all that grace asks of
us. We must maintain such an attitude even if it implies our crucifixion or seems to threaten our
destruction. This disposition of soul excludes all egotism and all attachment to our own earthly
desires. If the Holy Spirit is to fructify us and renew us as He did the apostles, we must prepare
the ground of our soul to the best of our ability for His coming. We make such a preparation by
forsaking our own desires and ridding ourselves of everything that is not in accord with God’s
will and honor. Then our souls will be truly free. Then we shall respond to every impulse and
inspiration of the Holy Spirit with a fervent, “Thy will be done.” God works best, if one may
use the expression, on the ground of nothingness. He created all things out of nothing. As long
as we have not completely effaced ourselves to prepare for the reception of His grace, as long
as we are not entirely submissive to His will and design and completely dependent on His
grace, as long as we depend on ourselves and seek to carry out our own desires, we hinder His
work in us; for we lack the submissiveness of will necessary for the free operation of His grace.
Purity of heart. Purity of heart is opposed to sin, to faults, and to imperfections. We know
that before the Holy Ghost will enter the heart of man, it must at least be free from sin and from
willful imperfections and faults, or it must at least have the sincere desire to achieve such purity
of heart. But there is also a purity of heart with regard to the reception of the grace which God
gives us. This purity of heart makes us purer, more enlightened, and more humble in proportion
to the degree by which we are enriched and elevated by grace. The greater the graces God gives,
the more purity of the affections required of the soul. The soul should possess something of that
purity of heart which Mary possessed when she was congratulated by Elizabeth and raised her
eyes to Him from whom she had received so much grace: “My soul doth magnify the Lord . . .
He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid. . . . He that is mighty hath done great things
to me” (Lk 1:46 ff.). Mary is elevated too far above the motive of selfish love to become proud
over the distinction that has been given to her. She rejoices only in what God has wrought in
her; she sees only Him and not herself. She possessed perfect purity of soul and was ready for
the reception of grace. But how different it is with us! How great is our secret pride! What idle
self-complacency we indulge in when God gives us grace! How often we take a foolish pride
in the graces we receive, and think ourselves something great because of them. The honor and
the good pleasure of God is seldom our primary motive in our quest of holiness. Our thoughts
and actions and designs are often primarily concerned with ourselves. Our selfish pride instills
a subtle poison into all our actions and infects even our love of God, so that what we should do
purely for the love of God, we do for ourselves. We have, then, good grounds for asking God:
“Grant that our will may be ever devoted to Thee, and that we may serve Thy majesty with a
sincere heart” (Collect).
Pentecost will be fruitful in graces. But a perfectly pure and unselfish heart is required to profit
by them. Not without reason Mary met with the apostles in the upper room. She is the exemplar
of all those to whom God gives great graces; we must imitate her example. She teaches us that
we should not long for special favors; that we should not believe that we have been given any
special graces because of our own worthiness and excellence; that we should not ascribe to
our own deserts any of the graces which we receive; that in matters of the spirit we should be
humble; that we should never undertake works of piety or self-abnegation in order to obtain
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