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The Light of the World
We deserve the reproach of the Lord, “O ye of little faith!” When will we understand and follow
the Lord’s word, “Be not solicitous therefore, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink,
or wherewith shall we be clothed, for after all these things do the heathen seek” (Gospel)?
Where is our Christian faith? When will we finally accept His advice, “Seek ye therefore first
the kingdom of God and His justice; and all these things shall be added unto you”? If only we
would obey God and in all things accept His will, He would take care of the rest.
“The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear Him, and shall deliver them.
O taste and see that the Lord is sweet” (Offertory).
The fundamental principle of Christian piety is a joyful confidence in God, which should
also be the foundation of our Christian faith. We need it especially when our vocation entails
disappointments and failures, when exterior sufferings threaten to deprive us of our former
confidence, when interior sufferings, temptations, difficulties, faults, and sins are about to lead
us astray and discourage us. “Behold the birds of the air; for they neither sow nor do they reap,
nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not of much more value
than they?” (Gospel.) The birds are only His creatures. We are His children, and He is our
Father. Are we not of much more value than they?
Prayer
Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with perpetual mercy; and because the frailty of
man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us
to all things profitable to our salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Monday
This week the liturgy expresses the faith of the Church in divine providence as the power
which governs the lives of the faithful. We are weak human beings and we lack the strength
to keep away from the things that are injurious; we are incapable of doing the things that are
for our spiritual good. But the infinitely wise and powerful providence of God watches over
our frailty and weakness, ruling and governing all our affairs. Protecting us from what might
be injurious, leading us to the things that are useful and wholesome, this providence watches
over the Church and her children.
God’s providence protects us from things that are injurious to us, for He knows the frailty
of man. We do not know what lies ahead of us; we do not know what the next hour may
bring. We deliberate, we decide on this step or that, not knowing whether it will be for the
good of our soul or not. Dangers threaten us from within and without. Within us there
is our weakness, which consists in a lack of wisdom or even in blindness; we are always
in danger of being deceived by men, by the world, by our own passions, by self-love, by
the fear of men, and by the spirit of the world, which always wants us to follow our baser
instincts. We are threatened from without by the devil, by our associations with men, by
our worries over the necessities of daily life; there are a thousand occasions of sin and
of infidelities of all kinds; we must reckon with countless dissipations and allurements
placed before us by the world and our own concupiscence. Wherever we are, there lurk
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