9781644135945

The Light of the World
Prayer
O God, our refuge and strength, the very Author of godliness, hear the devout prayers of Thy
Church and grant that what we confidently ask we may efficaciously obtain. Through Christ
our Lord. Amen.
Saturday
The Church prays that “your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all
understanding, that you may approve the better things, that you may be sincere and without
offense unto the day of Christ” (Epistle).
“That your charity may more and more abound in knowledge.” The more intense our love of
God, the deeper will be our understanding of divine things. To abound in charity means to
acquire a deeper and more perfect knowledge of God, of His salvation, of His holiness, and
of His redemption. Charity unites the soul to God. The charitable soul reposes in the heart of
Jesus as the child reposes on the breast of its mother. It finds its only joy in God. The more it
desires God, the more closely God draws it to Himself and manifests Himself to it so that it
can see and taste how sweet He is. It has a profound knowledge of God and of His mysteries,
a knowledge which God Himself provides personally and directly. He reveals Himself to such
a soul in a mystical way and manifests His lovableness through the instrumentality of men. He
dwells in the loving soul to be its sole love and consolation. It may approach Him, touch Him,
speak to Him with confidence, and turn to Him as a flower turns to the sun to receive the full
benefit of the light. This light given by God develops our understanding of God and of His
essence. In this sense Holy Mother the Church prays that our charity may abound more and
more in knowledge and understanding, “that you may approve the better things.”
Knowledge born of charity makes us understand that we still are not what we ought to
be. It gives us a desire for what lies before us and sets before us the ideal of perfect union with
God; it makes us wish to submit perfectly to His holy will and good pleasure. The soul thirsts
to share His perfect life and to become enraptured by His inexhaustible holiness. Knowledge
born of charity urges us to a greater purity and holiness in thought, word, and deed. Steeped
in the glow of this divine purity and holiness, the loving soul is stripped of all uncleanness, of
all imperfection, of all selfishness. It becomes pure in its intentions, in its motives, in its works,
in its deeds. Finally, knowledge born of charity fills our hands with the fruit of good works, for
charity and good works are so dependent on one another that the one cannot exist without the
other. Charity in the soul is the root of all good works. On the other hand, charity decreases and
disappears if it is not nourished by good works, just as a fire languishes unless fuel is supplied.
Good works are the fuel for charity. If charity abides in our souls, we are “filled with the fruit of
justice” (Epistle), we are clean and “without offense unto the day of Christ,” prepared for the
hour of death and judgment.
The liturgy is concerned with our growth in charity, which is the foundation and source of
all other virtues; indeed, it includes all the other virtues. Where charity is lacking, all else
fails. Where charity exists, there also are the other virtues. Where charity exists, man gives
to God the things that are God’s and to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.
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