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The Light of the World
Saturday
This week is a preparation for the feast of SS. Peter and Paul. As we follow them through their
arduous apostolic careers, and when we see them suffering their cruel martyrdom at Rome,
we become aware that their life of suffering for Christ was the source of their eternal glory.
“The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall
be revealed in us” (Epistle).
The liturgy for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost tells us that the Church is hard pressed,
for she herself speaks of being troubled by her enemies (Introit). The spirit of the world
is restless and uneasy, and it resists the work of the Church. Although the Church labors
ceaselessly, casting out her nets for the souls of men through the hands of her priests,
missionaries, lay apostles, and manifold institutions, she yet appears to encounter failure
after failure. She seeks to capture the souls of men that she may sanctify them and save
them; but humanly speaking, she, like Peter, appears to have failed in her fishing. “We
have labored all night and have taken nothing.” Among her own children there are many
scandals, many apostates, much unfaithfulness, many traitors, many faithless ones, many
sinners. These are some of the sufferings of the Church, the “sufferings of this time.”
How manifold are the sufferings of her children! How great are the trials that beset the
Christian from the cradle to the grave! Sometimes those who are least deserving of pain
suffer the most. The nearer they approach God, the more thoroughly they are purified
by the fire of suffering. The more earnestly they strive to serve God, the more they are
misunderstood, despised, repudiated, and persecuted by the world. Sometimes they
receive like treatment even from their friends. “Because . . . I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you” ( Jn 15:19). Even those who are nearest to
us and whom we justly hold in high esteem, desert us. Even those in whom we trusted
consider themselves justified in deserting and rejecting us. These sufferings are certainly
the deepest and most bitter.
Sometimes God Himself seems to have taken the side of our enemies. He often allows
those who strive most honestly to serve Him to succumb to human frailty, commit foolish
mistakes, contract imperfections, and compromise themselves in the eyes of others, so that their
few remaining friends begin to waver. Within their souls they experience that fearful condition
which makes them think that evil has reentered their souls and brought ten other devils with
it, and all good seems to have fled. Their power of resistance seems to have vanished; their
imagination is plagued with vile pictures; their understanding of God and things spiritual is
weakened; their will is indolent; their mind is dull; and their heart is devoid of devotion. To
all this there is often added the feeling of having been forsaken by God. Such sufferings cannot
be understood by anyone who has not experienced them; but we should not be surprised if
they should come to us, for by our baptism we have committed ourselves to suffer and die with
Christ that we might also rise with Him.
Compared to the glory we are to experience in the next world, the sufferings of this
world are insignificant. Let us consider the life of St. Peter. During his earthly pilgrimage
there was little in his life that was pleasing or beautiful. After the hard years of his life as a
poor fisherman, he enjoys for a short time his close association with Christ. Those were
his best years. His life as a missionary in Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome was difficult, filled
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