9781644135945

The Light of the World
interruption she offers the Father during Mass the blood, merits, and satisfaction the Lord
has made for us during His earthly life. These merits and satisfactions are of infinite value,
and by this sacrifice the Church renders infinite homage, praise, and glory to almighty God.
By virtue of the Mass she offers to divine justice the most complete satisfaction and expiation
for our sins and the punishment due to them. By the Mass the Church gains abundant actual
graces which illuminate the sinner and induce him to make acts of penance and contrition,
thus leading him back to the friendship of God in the sacrament of penance. In the Mass
she also gains the graces that incite and strengthen the just man to do good works, to make
sacrifices, and to lift up his soul to perfect love for God and his neighbor. Offering Himself
as a gift of sacrifice for His Church in the Mass, the Lord is the high priest and mediator
before the Father, pleading the cause of His beloved bride, the Church. Can it be possible
that the Father will deny anything to the Son, in whom He is well pleased? Will He disregard
the prayers which His Son submits to Him in the name of His Church and for the Church?
Assuredly God will not disregard the prayers of His Son. With confidence the Church prays
in union with Christ: “In Thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed.”
The Church prays through Christ, the Lord. She concludes all her prayers with the
words, “through Christ our Lord.” Since He is the mediator ordained by God to mediate
between Himself and us, the Church, full of confidence, puts her prayers and intentions,
her thanksgivings and praises in the hands of this mediator. He accepts them, uniting them
with the adoration, thanksgiving, and praises of His own Heart, making them His own in
such a way that He offers them to His Father as if they really were His own. Small wonder,
then, that the Church rejoices: “When I cried to the Lord, He heard my voice” (Introit). For
this reason she never wearies of praying and fears nothing, though she is surrounded by her
enemies on all sides and is ever oppressed and persecuted. “To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up
my soul; in Thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed.” Now we understand
why the Church repeatedly sings songs of triumph and victory: she is sure that her prayers
will be heard through Christ, the mediator who makes them part of His all-powerful prayers.
We pray with the Church. By virtue of our communion with the Church we also pray relying
on Christ, the mediator, who ascended into heaven as our precursor and sits at the right hand
of the Father “that He may appear now in the presence of God for us” (Heb 9:24). Having
become one with Him, we also may go to the Father and say: “I am Thy first-begotten one.” We
are allowed to speak to the Father in the name of His Son, asking of Him with fullest confidence
for whatever we may stand in need of.
We possess sanctifying grace, the grace of the sonship of God, by virtue of which the features
of Christ, the Son of God, have been imprinted upon our soul. When, therefore, the Father
sees us clothed with the robe of sanctifying grace, in the likeness of His Son, He cannot refuse
us what we ask of Him; for in asking of Him we rely not on ourselves but on Him in whom the
Father is well pleased.
Prayer
O God, who dost manifest Thy almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity; increase
Thy mercy towards us, that we, seeking the way of Thy promises, may be made partakers of Thy
heavenly treasures. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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