9781644135945

The Light of the World
however, means accepting and doing His will. “He that doeth the will of My Father who is in
heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
True piety does not exhaust itself in the performance of exercises of piety and does not consist
in our praying often and willingly; piety is an attitude of our will embracing and determining
our entire life. It means striving to accept whatever the day may have in store for us as His will
and as sent to us by His providence and love; it means seeing God in all things and looking up
to Him, suffering all things for His pleasure and honor. Breaking away from everything by which
we might offend God or incur His displeasure, true piety anxiously avoids voluntary faults and
imperfections. It is as solicitous for the love of our fellow man and for the fulfillment of one’s
duty as it is for prayer. “Not every one that saith to Me: Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven.” We are truly pious, devoted
to interior life, perfect, only in so far as we endeavor to do the will of the Father who is in heaven.
“As you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so
now yield your members to serve justice unto sanctification. . . . You have your fruit unto sanctification,
and the end life everlasting” (Epistle). This is our fruit: to become holy by fulfilling
the will of the Father who is in heaven, “and the end life everlasting.” “Every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit.”
Prayer
O God, whose providence in the ordering of all things never fails, we humbly beseech Thee
to put away from us all harmful things and to give us those things which are profitable for us.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Tuesday
Easter presented us with a new life. The Spirit of Pentecost brings it to full maturity, as summer
makes the growing crops ripen with its light and warmth. Today’s liturgy reminds us of a husbandman
who inspects his crops during the summertime to see whether they are growing and
ripening. He is looking forward to the fruit. “By their fruits you shall know them” (Gospel),
those who are truly Christians, truly pious and devoted to God. To have been baptized is not
enough; neither is it sufficient to belong to a religious society or to wear the robe of a religious.
God wants fruit. “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and shall be cast
into the fire” (Gospel). The liturgy takes seriously the growing and ripening of the divine life.
“The evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit.” The evil tree brings forth fruit too, but it is evil fruit that
cannot be used and is cast away. They are the evil trees who live according to their instincts
and passions and do the works of fallen nature, who live apart from the life of God, rejecting
baptism and sanctifying grace. However hard we may work and toil under such conditions,
even though we astonish the world with our deeds, we produce nothing but empty fruits, wild
fruits that have no value for eternal life, to which we are called. We are evil trees when, having
been united with God through baptism, we become unfaithful to our baptismal vows, separating
ourselves from Him and His life through mortal sins. The very nature of baptism and our
faith make us still a part of Christ; but we are as branches on Christ that have withered away,
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