9781644135945

The Light of the World
“A certain man made a great supper and invited many. And he sent his servant at the hour of
supper to say to them that were invited, that they should come, for now all things are ready”
(Gospel). Those who had been invited, however, made excuses to their host. One had bought
a farm, and another a yoke of oxen, and a third had just taken a wife; and therefore they could
not come. “Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into
the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the feeble, and the blind,
and the lame. . . . Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my
house may be filled. But I say unto you, that none of these men that were invited shall taste of
my supper” (Gospel).
The banquet is prepared today and every day for us in the Holy Eucharist. The rich,
that is, those who have no interest except in worldly, material things, persist in declining
this invitation to the Eucharistic banquet. They have no taste for such food. The poor,
however, those who are free of earthly encumbrances, the sick, the weak, and those who
have little of this world’s goods, all are satisfied at the Eucharistic table. We rejoice that
we are among those who have been invited to the Eucharistic banquet. We lift ourselves
above earthly goods and desires and long for the eternal goods supplied by the Eucharist.
“He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away” (Lk
1:53). In our hunger for the Holy Eucharist and in our longing for Holy Communion
we shall want nothing. A great blessing is our realization that we are the poor, the weak,
the blind, and the lame, and that we stand so much in need of the strength and help of
the Holy Eucharist.
The special fruit of a devout participation in the Eucharistic banquet is the spirit, the
will, and the strength necessary to love as God wishes us to love (Epistle). “Dearly beloved,
wonder not if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death to life because
we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is
a murderer; and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself. In this we
have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us; and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see
his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him, how doth the charity of God
abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in
truth” (Epistle). “By their fruits you shall know them” (Mt 7:16). By the fruits of fraternal
charity, by our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for the good of the brethren, in great things
and in small, others will be able to judge us, and we shall be able to judge ourselves. By
this means we shall be able to determine how fruitful our reception of Holy Communion
has been. Nothing in the life of a Christian is more difficult than the consistent practice of
fraternal charity. The more closely we are associated with others in life, the more heavily the
burdens of others weigh upon us (Gal 6:2), and the greater is the strain placed upon our
love. But from the reception of Holy Communion we shall obtain the strength to practice
fraternal charity, to master ourselves, and to suppress our personal desires and ambitions.
There we shall find the strength to forgive others, to understand their difficulties, and to treat
them with charity and deference under all circumstances. By the strength gained from Holy
Communion we shall be able to avoid all bitterness and uncharitableness. By this means we
shall be able to maintain peace of soul in spite of all internal and external disturbances, and
become “one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread” (1 Cor 10:17).
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