In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. In the opening prayer of this mass, we prayed that we would walk by the light of Christ. Christ. What other light are you going to walk by?
You're going to walk by some kind of light. I'm going to walk by some kind of light. But first of all, to say I believe in God, to accept the reality of God, to accept the reality as I tried to emphasize yesterday, the providence, I that's a a word I don't know how much that word means to most of you. It means god's detailed care of me. That not a hair falls from my head without almighty gods knowing it and willing it.
And our blessed lord pushes this truth home to us. How much more are you than the grass of the field, the weeds, the sparrows, the hairs of your head? Give yourself the benefit of the doubt you're better than a daisy. And yet God said, look how he I mean, our Lord said, look how God takes care of even the grass of the field. Now if we're going to walk by the light of Christ, which is the light of his father, then we've got to come we've got to surrender to him.
You can't have four hands, you can't have three hands on the steering wheel of a car. We have to walk by some kind of light. Otherwise, we don't walk very well. We don't walk towards any goal. We have very we are in danger of falling and injuring ourselves and in danger of losing ourselves completely.
Completely. This is a possibility. This isn't just fiction or the or the bad dreams of some evangelical preacher. The loss of salvation is a possibility possibility for each one of us. Salvation is something I have got to put my shoulder to and work at to achieve.
God saves me, I know that, but he I have my own essential contribution to make to that salvation. I know this raises tremendous problems, but the problem doesn't disturb or revolt or destroy the fact that that's the way it is. Christ said, without me, you can do nothing. Nothing. That means you can't digest your breakfast without God almighty.
And for people to say, God is responsible for the evil in the world, forget it. Of course, he's not responsible for moral evil, but you can't exclude God activity, from the realism of the actual world. That's no answer to the problem of evil. The answer to the problem of what we call evil is the walking in the light of Christ. It's that simple and yet so difficult.
Because first of all, we have to make a choice about those lights. There's the that's the first thing. What light are you going to walk by? You're going to have to have some kind of light. Which one is it?
What is it going to be? All I'm saying is what is your ultimate goal? What do you think the ultimate purpose of it? This is all the same thing in the last analysis. So it isn't we've got to have some kind of light.
We all in fact do have some kind of light. The difficulty is we have many lights to choose from, many lights to choose choose from. From. Above all, I have my own will against the will of God to choose from. You see, many and when I say many people, I'm including me.
We say, I don't know the will of God or the will of God is obscure or the will of God is confused. I don't see clearly the path I should follow. A lot of that is nonsense. I mean, in this sense, that what we want is to do what I want. Whereas, in a matter of fact, to walk by the light of Christ is to do what he wants, which believe me is often what I don't want.
What I don't want. There's in many instances, there's very little satisfaction in being a Christian. There's a great deal of dissatisfaction in being a Christian. How can you not be dissatisfied if you are following Christ? How can you ever say I am satisfied with my following of the light of Christ?
Do you think you ever can say that honestly to yourself? None of us can. We try. We try, but we don't achieve the perfection of it. And so that's the first thing we have.
We have to make a choice among all these things which are attracting us and say they say, come follow my path. This is the path that will give you fulfillment. This is the path which will give you, sir, cease from the from the all the turmoil and anxieties of life. This is the path which will make life worthwhile. This is the path which will make things easy.
This is the path you should follow. There are literally thousands of these paths and they're all different lights. All different lights. That's the first choice. Which one are we going to follow?
And I mean follow consistently. I mean in daily living because this is what this is what touches me. I don't live tomorrow. I don't live yesterday except up here, and that's nonsense. That's a that's a fantasy world.
I'm talking about today, Thursday, July 5. What light will you pick today and tomorrow and the next day to wend your way through life? And nobody who follows Christ is going to tell you it's easy, that it's all fun and games, that it's all joy and hallelujahs. I mean, hallelujah in the sense of words which means great, I'm happy. Because hallelujah, you know, means praise god.
That's it's Jewish Hebrew for praising god. I it means praise god. It's the imperative. And how do you praise God? By doing your own will?
By following one of these other lights? Any of these lights that are not the light of that is not the light of Christ. Is that how you're singing your hallelujahs and praising god? Oh, no. It doesn't work.
It will not work. There is no light that you will follow that will satisfy, that will keep its promise, that will give you what you expect of it. Not a single one of them. I don't care what it is. A good marriage, a good relationship, a good job, a good feeling about your vocation, a good feeling about the decision you made years ago to be what you are today.
I don't care what it is. And so that's the first decision, the choice of life. And the second is walking in that light. Walking. Not running, walking in the light, struggling in the light, falling down in the light, getting up in the light.
And all of this, you say, this is impossible. Oh, no. It is impossible for you and for me. But our lord said, with me, all things are possible. In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit.
Amen.