Saturday, May 13 : Saint Maximus the Confessor

The lamp on the lampstand is our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Father’s true light “who enlightens everyone coming into the world” (Jn 1:9): in other words, the Father’s Wisdom and Word. Having accepted our flesh, he truly became, and was called, the “light of the world”. By our faith and devotion he is honored and exalted in the Church. In this way he is made visible to all nations and shines out for “all the people in the house”, namely the whole world, as he said: “They do not light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand , where it gives light to all in the house” (Mt 5:15). As we have seen, Christ calls himself a lamp. God by nature, he became flesh according to the plan of salvation: a light held within the flesh as if in a vase… This is what David was thinking when he said: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Ps 119[118]:105). Since he causes the darkness of ignorance and the evil of men to vanish, my Savior and my God is called a lamp in Scripture. And since he is the only one able to obliterate the darkness of ignorance and disperse the shadows of sin, he has become the way of salvation for all. He leads towards the Father all those who, through understanding and virtue, walk with him along the path of the commandments as on a road of righteousness. The lampstand is holy Church because the Word of God shines out through her preaching. This is how the beams of its truth can enlighten the whole world… On one condition, however: so long as it is not hidden under the letter of the Law. Anyone who clings to Scripture according to the letter only is living according to the flesh; he is placing the lamp under a bushel basket. But when, to the contrary, the Church is set on the lampstand, it enlightens everyone.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team