Vigils Reading

MY ALL IN ALL

From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny

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Now, my brethren, what witness to Christ’s love does the joy of your

hearts give you? I venture to judge, and rightly as you will see, that if you have

ever loved Jesus alive or dead or risen from the dead, your heart rejoices within

you. As the tidings of his resurrection resound and re-echo again and again

through the Church you will say to yourselves: “They have told me that Jesus

my God is still alive. On hearing it my spirit, which was asleep through

weariness, languishing through tepidity, disheartened through timidity, has

revived.” For the joyful voice of this happy message raises even from death

those buried deep in sin. Otherwise, if Christ, coming up from hell, left them

there in the depths, there would certainly be no hope for them; their fate would

be buried in forgetfulness. By this token you may clearly know that your soul

lives again fully in Christ if it echoes this sentiment: “It is enough for me that

Jesus is still alive.”

How faithful and worthy of a friend of Jesus is that voice, how pure that

act of love which says: “It is enough for me that Jesus is still alive. If he lives, I

live, for my spirit acts through his. Yes, he is my life, my all in all. For what

can I lack if Jesus is still alive? Rather everything else may be taken from me,

nothing else matters to me so long as he lives. If he wishes then, let him take no

account of me. It is enough for me that he still lives even if he only lives for

himself.” When the love of Christ so absorbs all our affections that, unmindful

and forgetful of ourselves, we have no feeling for anything but Jesus Christ and

what pertains to him, then, I say, love has been made perfect in us. To one who

so loves, poverty is no burden, no hurt is felt, insults are to be laughed at,

misfortune disdained, and death considered as gain. In fact one does not think

in terms of death knowing that death is a passage to life. And one can

confidently assert: “I will go and see him before I die.”

Although, my brethren, we have not been endowed with such a great

purity of conscience, let us, nevertheless, go to see Jesus journeying to the

mountain of heavenly Galilee, where he awaits us. On the way our love will

increase, and on our arrival, at least, it will be perfected. On the way, the road, at

first hard and difficult, will grow easier, and the strength of the weak will

increase. The flesh of Christ is our food for the journey, his Spirit our means of

conveyance. He himself is the food, he himself is the chariot and charioteer of

Israel. When you arrive, all the goods, not of Egypt but of heaven, will be yours.

There, in the best place in the kingdom, at the bidding of Christ you will take

your rest. “Come to me all you that labor and are burdened with hunger, and I

will refresh you. Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom

prepared for you.” May he who calls you lead you to where he lives and reigns

with the Father and the Holy Spirit, through endless ages.