9781644135945

The Light of the World
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Mass
The ecclesiastical year is drawing to an end. Now the Church looks for its perfection in eternity,
for its home, its last end, and its rest. She knows that there Christ the Lord reigns in glory. The
Church left behind on earth makes a long and weary journey to Him.
In former times the bishop with his clergy proceeded from the sacristy to the altar through the
aisles of the church in solemn procession; the chanters also walked in this procession. Above
the altar the picture of the glorified Christ shone in splendid mosaics in the apse. While the
procession proceeded to the altar, the chanters began the Introit, their pilgrimage-song. Hearts
and eyes are directed to Christ, who looks down from the height of the apse. “Thou art just,
O Lord, and Thy judgment is right; deal with Thy servant according to Thy mercy. Blessed are
the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord” (Introit). Blessed are we who dare
approach the Lord on this day at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But the celebration of the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass requires that we be “undefiled,” that we walk “in the law of the Lord”; that
we abstain from “the defilements of the devil and with pure hearts follow Thee, the only God”
(Collect). Our life must be worthy of the Mass; it must be a preparation for the celebration of
the Holy Sacrifice. What is especially demanded of us, says the Epistle, is a charity which forgets
itself and wishes to work for the community, in the union of the spirit, in thought and deed:
“One body and one spirit. . . . One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”
We must become one with the community, avoiding all disputes and quarrels, one in heart
and soul walking with the Lord. If we have become one in charity, then the praise of the beatitude
given in the Gradual refers to us: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord [Christ],
the people whom He hath chosen for His inheritance.” This precious inheritance, already ours
on this earth, is perfected in eternity, where the Lord Christ is enthroned in His glory, which
He will communicate to His elect. How the soul and the Church long for the day which will
give her that glory: the day of the resurrection of Christ! “Alleluia. O Lord, hear my prayer and
let my cry come to Thee. Alleluia.” This is the cry of the ancient Church: Maran-atha. Come,
O Lord, to the Last Judgment, to fetch us to the kingdom of glory! He comes in the Gospel as
the teacher of the great commandment of charity. He comes as the risen Lord, of whom David
sang: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit Thou at My right hand” (Ps 109:1).
We go to the glorified Lord at the sacrifice and implore Him: “Show Thy face upon Thy sanctuary”
(Offertory), upon the sacrificing community, which puts upon the altar its gifts of bread
and wine, its prayers and works, its power, its time, its willingness to renounce sin, the flesh,
and the world, and to live during the coming week with Christ, and to be to Him a pleasing
sacrifice. Christ becomes our sacrifice. In Him and with Him we are sacrificed, that is, consecrated
to God. Thus we fulfill the commandment of the Gospel: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with thy whole heart”; we love Him through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, and give
Him “all honor and glory.” Taken up in the sacrifice of Christ, we recite our Pater noster with a
heart enkindled with charity. Soon Christ will come to us in Holy Communion. He becomes
the life-giving food of our soul, sets up the throne of His glory in it, commands His enemies to
flee, and infuses some of the fullness of His life and power into our souls.
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