Lux Mundi

On February 2, Holy Church celebrated the feast of the Purification of Our Lady. On this feast, she reminds us that Our Lord is the light of the world: “Ego sum lux mundi” (Jn 12:8). The prayers of the blessing of the candles repeat this truth in various ways. The procession of candles teaches us that it is Our Lord who enlightens all men who come into this world. He who does not follow Him walks in darkness.

This is why the modern world walks in darkness and, through supreme blindness, believes itself to be in the light. The various revolutions that have occurred everywhere, but especially in Europe — above all the French Revolution — cast Europe and then the world into the outer darkness of atheism, heresy, schism, and the confusion of false religions. The world today is immersed in darkness and still dares to say that the Middle Ages were an age of darkness. Ours is the age of darkness; yet the light of Our Lord shines and will always shine in the Holy Church. Not in the conciliar Church, which exists like a cancer within the Catholic Church. How are we to discern what is darkness and what is light in the Church? How are we to distinguish what comes from the Catholic Church from what comes from the conciliar Church? By Tradition, for it is Tradition that links us to Our Lord, who is the true Light. Tradition is the criterion.

In the Gospel of the feast of the Purification it is written: “(…) my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: a light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of Thy people Israel.”

Who is this people? The Church, true daughter of Abraham and faithful to Him whom Abraham foresaw by faith and in whom he rejoiced.

Who are these nations? The Catholic nations.

Only the Catholic nations? No. All nations. All must submit to Him who is the light that enlightens every man who comes into this world.

“My eyes have seen,” exclaims Saint Simeon. Salvation begins with preaching. To preach is to show. He who receives the true doctrine of Our Lord — the doctrine of the Church founded by Our Lord to bring it to all peoples — he who receives this true doctrine of the true God sees as Simeon sees. He sees by faith, which is a light — an obscure light, certainly; yet this light of the knowledge of God is the beginning of eternal life, of the eternal vision of God.

It is by the light of faith that Our Lord begins to reign in our souls. Let us ask Our Lady to protect us from the darkness of the modern world. This darkness spreads through the work of the enemies of Our Lord, who labor without ceasing to destroy, at their very foundations, the institutions born of the principles of the Gospel. Among these enemies, Freemasonry holds a foremost place, and we hope to expound the doctrine of the Church which has condemned it. Freemasonry is the society par excellence that opposes this light which is the Lux Mundi, the light of the world; and there is no other that can lead us to our true end, which is precisely the beatific vision — that is, the eternal light in the bosom of the eternal Trinity.

+Thomas Aquinas, O.S.B.