9781644135945

The Light of the World
of the Mass we are healed and receive the power to arise and go into the house of the Lord, into
heaven. Thankfully we answer the Gospel with our Credo: I believe in eternal life.
At the Offertory Moses appears at the altar offering upon it holocausts and victims — a figure of
Christ, who now celebrates His sacrifice at the altar for the remission of all sins. Now we make
our offering. We unite ourselves with the sacrificing Christ on our altar, and thus we crucify the
old man of sin; during the sacrifice we die to sin and to the world and all its vanities. The more
closely we unite ourselves to the sacrifice of Christ, the more perfectly He shares His grace with
us and the more fully He makes “us partakers of the one supreme Godhead” (Secreta). Thus we
the more surely “come into His courts” (Communion) in the kingdom of His glory. “I rejoiced
at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.”
Meditation
“Give peace, O Lord” (Introit). Give us that perfect redemption which the Savior has merited
for us, and the eternal blessing which is promised in the Old Testament, in the Gospels, and in
the writings of the apostles. “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the
house of the Lord” (Introit), into our eternal home. We, the baptized, await eternal life.
“I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus”
(Epistle). This Sunday we look with grateful hearts at our life and at the ecclesiastical year, which
is now drawing to its close. We remember the many great graces which the Lord has given us
during our life and during the many weeks which have passed since the beginning of the Church
year. We confess “that in all things you are made rich in Him,” Jesus Christ (Epistle). Although
we are poor and sinful, He has generously given us blessings and graces. What would we be
without Him, without our union with Him as the head of the Church? Through Him we share
in the divine intellect and life, being heirs of God, and receive an unbroken series of graces from
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. “Nothing is wanting to you in any grace” (Epistle). Should we
not therefore rejoice? We are “waiting for the manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ” (Epistle),
for His return personally to us at the hour of our death, and to the whole of mankind on the last
day. The Christian awaits His return in eager expectation of what is to come. He sees beyond the
present day and beyond the fleeting events of tomorrow, and looks to eternity, “waiting for the
manifestation of our Lord,” just as the virgins in our Lord’s parable await the bridegroom (Mt
25:1 ff.). Meanwhile “in all things you are made rich in Him, . . . who also will confirm you unto
the end without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Epistle). Thus the
Church will be without crime when the Lord comes, entirely spotless for her spouse, clothed
in the beauty of the graces and virtues of her spouse. Thus she desires and expects us to be
when the Lord appears, now in the Sacrifice of the Mass and later on at the hour of our death
and on the last day. The Lord strengthens us that we may endure until the end, clean, without
sin, adorned with graces, in the garment of the bridegroom. We possess all grace and continual
help from the Lord. Have we not cause enough to give thanks?
The beginning and source of all our hopes of salvation lies in the baptism which we have
received. It is the greatest event in our life. The Gospel account of the man sick with the palsy
reminds us of our baptism. When Jesus had come to Capharnaum, “they brought Him one sick
of the palsy.” Jesus performs a twofold favor for him. First He forgives him his sins: “Thy sins are
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