9781644135945

The Light of the World
have the same theme: “Thou who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou
who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou who sittest at the right hand of
the Father, have mercy upon us.” In the Collect we pray: “Multiply Thy mercies upon us, that
having Thee for our ruler and Thee for our guide, we may so make use of temporal goods that
we lose not those which are everlasting.” We are lambs which have become entangled in the
thorns of temporal goods. It is the duty of the Christian to turn away from temporal things and
turn toward the eternal, to look to the provident hand of God for guidance. “Cast all your care
upon Him, for He hath care of you” (Epistle).
“But the God of all grace who hath called us in baptism unto His eternal glory, . . . after you
have suffered a little, will Himself perfect you, and confirm you, and establish you” (Epistle).
The things of this world serve to prepare us for the life hereafter. They all have a value for eternity.
Is not God the highest good of man? He is the Good Shepherd, who takes special care of those
sheep who have gone astray and are lost. In the liturgy today we are the lost sheep whom He
takes upon His shoulders and carries back to the fold of the Church. There, in the gathering of
the faithful, He calls together His friends, the baptized, and invites them to rejoice with Him in
the Eucharistic banquet. “Or what woman having ten groats, if she lose one groat, doth not light
a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it?” (Gospel.) This woman is
also a symbol of the Church, who carries a light in her hand (Christ) and goes about in the world
seeking those souls which are entangled in worldliness and sin. How she rejoices at the sight
of a sinner doing penance, leaving his former evil ways and turning wholeheartedly to Christ!
At the Offertory those things which we heard in the Epistle and Gospel become realities. We are
the sheep, lost in worldliness, trivialities, temporal things, and sin. We are indeed lost groats. In
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we disengage ourselves from our ill-advised absorption in temporal
things and sin. We resign ourselves and allow ourselves to be found and taken up by Christ,
who by His suffering and death has come forth in search of us. We repent of our waywardness
and infidelity, which have caused us to seek worldly things instead of following Christ. In the
spirit of sacrifice we surrender to Christ and become sacrificial victims with Him, seeking thus
to be freed from our perverted love of the things of this world. We long to be changed from
enemies of God to His friends, and to serve Him faithfully, and to belong to Him entirely. When
we return to Him in the Holy Sacrifice, He prepares for us, the sheep who were lost, the joyful
banquet of the Holy Eucharist.
Meditation
At Easter we were reborn. Pentecost brought us the Holy Ghost, and with Him the maturity,
courage, and strength of manhood. Now we are faced with the difficulties of life, with its temptations,
and trials, and needs. On our way through the difficulties of life we come to the Lord
and pray: “Look Thou upon me, O Lord, and have mercy upon me” (Introit). “Multiply Thy
mercies upon us, that having Thee for our ruler and Thee for our guide, we may so make use of
temporal goods that we lose not those which are everlasting” (Collect).
“Cast all your care upon Him, for He hath care of you” (Epistle). We are in danger because
of temporal wealth and worldly affairs. Once we made this renunciation: I renounce the
world and its vanities. But what is our attitude now? Even more than we ourselves suspect
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