SECOND SUNDAY AFTER ALL-SAINTS.
Christ Your Father
"I will arise and go to my father." (Luke xv. 17.)
I. Almighty God, though He be infinitely powerful and rich, and in regard to whom all His creatures are as "a drop of a bucket, and as the smallest grain of a balance" (Is. xl. 15), does not disdain to be called, and to be really, our Father. He condescends in some respect to be our only Father; for Jesus Christ says, "Call none your father upon earth, for One is your Father who is in heaven." (Matt, xxiii. 9.) Christ Himself would be styled by a special title the "Father of the world to come" (Is. ix. 6), and not content with this, He assumes something more than even the affection of a mother: "If she should forget her child," He says, "yet will not I forget thee." (Is. xlix. 15.) Reflect deeply how Christ performs both of these offices. — He not only gives us a spiritual life, but He nourishes us with His own most precious body and blood.
II. Consider how, like another prodigal son, you have abandoned a father so good and so affectionate; and employed yourself in feeding swine. He is, however, still ready to receive you again, and clothe you with His costly robe; for, "as a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear Him; for He knoweth our frame." (Ps. cii. 13.) He awaits you to-day in the Eucharist, and with open arms wishes to embrace you. Dispose yourself, then, to receive Him in the most worthy manner.
III. To dispose your soul in the best manner to receive
