9781644135945

The Light of the World
“Therefore receiving an immovable kingdom, we have grace; whereby let us serve, pleasing
God, with fear and reverence” (Heb 12:28). This immovable kingdom has been given to us in
the New Covenant, into which, without effort or merit, we have been received in baptism. It
embraces the fullness of the spiritual, supernatural world created by God in Jesus Christ. “We
saw His glory, the glory as it were of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” ( Jn
1:14). This covenant is our participation in Christ’s redemption: the debt which we had to pay
to divine justice has been rescinded; adequate atonement has been made for our sins. Sin has
been conquered, the power of hell has been broken, death has met its conqueror, and heaven
has been opened. “God, who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ . . . and hath raised us
up together and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus. . . . For
by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Eph
2:4 ff.). All these glories are part of the New Covenant, into which we have been received. This
covenant also embraces the riches and treasures of the Church: the divine truth entrusted to the
Church, the sacraments, the fullness of grace, the virtues, prayers, and merits of the Church on
earth and in heaven. “We have received an immovable kingdom,” full of riches and supernatural
glory. We Christians have been placed in a kingdom, a spiritual order, the possession of which
can make us rich and happy beyond our fondest hopes.
“We all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same
image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18). In place of the earthly
Moses with his veiled face (Epistle) we Christians are allowed to look upon the Lord Himself,
whose face is unveiled and shining in glory. This face takes hold of us in the very depths of
our being and forms us into its own image. Christ’s image is being formed in us as His glory is
reflected in ours. Continual meditation on the person and work of Christ, and our unceasing
efforts to imitate Him, realizing what He has done and is still doing for us, change us completely
into other Christs. We feel urged to continually thank and praise Him who did everything for
us even before we knew Him, when we were still children of God’s wrath, and who made us
heirs of God without any personal merits of our own. Thus despite all the troubles and sufferings
of this earthly life, we must endeavor never to lose sight of the unmerited glories of the
New Covenant. Once it has become our first and sincere endeavor to meditate on the interior
perfections of the Lord and on His work and His Church, to believe and trust in them, and
to praise them, we will have a true understanding of the essentials of a Christian life. Here we
have the roots and the fertile soil of genuine fruitfulness in the Christian life, which result from
our meditation on Christ. Our fruitfulness cannot be anything but the superabundance of the
perfections and glories of the New Covenant, into which we have been received. It must consist
in the reflection of the glory of the Lord within our soul, the consideration of which changes us
ever more perfectly into His image “by the Spirit of the Lord.”
“Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see” (Gospel). We are the privileged ones
who see all these things “with open face” through the revelation and the graces of the New
Testament. Unfortunately we exert ourselves too little to become aware of the glory of Christ,
of His person, of His work, and of His Church. We are not grateful enough for the exalted kingdom
(the New Covenant) into which we have been received. Trusting too little in the interior
fullness and power of this covenant and the glory it contains, we lose much of this power and
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