9781644135945

The Light of the World
of the mystical body, the more charity grows within us. We attain a greater love for souls, for the
poor, for those who have gone astray, for all our brethren who have been seduced or have fallen
away. The Spirit of love will make us live and understand what St. Paul puts so emphatically
before our eyes as the gift to be preferred before all other gifts: “If I speak with the tongues of
men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should
have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. . . . And
now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1
Cor 13:1 f., 13).
“We have received Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy temple” (Introit). We have received
through God’s mercy union with the Son of God and with the body of Christ, gifts of infinite
value. We gratefully proclaim: “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” The celebration of
today’s Mass is to be a Eucharistia, a sacrifice of thanksgiving, offered in the name of all those
who live in union with the Son of God and His mystical body. It must be a sacrifice of petition
for all who belong to this body in order that all of us may recognize the grace given to us in
baptism (Easter) and confirmation (Pentecost), and that we may live as Christians, as bearers
of the Spirit of Christ. We certainly are no longer debtors to the flesh. Having received the
Holy Spirit we are of one spirit with our Lord Jesus Christ. We live by the Spirit of God and the
Spirit of Christ. Our Lord gives us His special graces when, in Holy Communion, He pours out
upon us His Holy Spirit. “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet; blessed is the man that hopeth
in Him” (Communion).
Prayer
May this heavenly mystery, O Lord, heal us both in soul and body; and may we ever feel within
us the power of the sacraments we celebrate. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thursday
“You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but . . . the spirit of adoption of sons,
whereby we cry: Abba, Father” (Epistle). “Behold what manner of charity the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God” (1 Jn 3:1).
God comes to us in the person of a child. He does not come to us as an angel, nor as Lord and
Judge, not even as a loving Father; but He prefers the humble simplicity and helplessness of a
child. He brings nothing with him, neither nobility of birth nor the splendor of His majesty,
nothing but His life; He chooses the helplessness and sweetness of a child, though He could
have come in the splendor of a king. He is well aware of the fact that there is no greater moral
power among men than the weakness of a child. It conquers the most hardened heart and has
power over every good spirit. God, of course, could force men to do His will; He could tread
upon them, but He wants to win their hearts to Himself, and therefore He comes as a child,
not as an omnipotent God; His helplessness bespeaks His desire for us. The divine child wants
us to forget our timidity and fear, and desires that we come to Him with a childlike simplicity.
“We have received Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy temple” (Introit).
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