Tuesday, December 3 (November 20), 2024
1Thess. 3:9-13;  Lk. 11:34-41

“The light of the body is the eye” [Lk. 11:34],  and the light of the soul is the mind.  When our bodily eyes are sound, we can see things around us and find our way, where to go and what to do; likewise, a sound mind gives us the knowledge of our inner world, of our relations to God and neighbor, of our attitudes and behavior.

Our mind, that is, the superior part of our soul, involving both the sense of God and the voice of conscience, holds the direction towards the good in any aspect of our inner life.  When it is not sound, then God is forgotten, conscience runs aground, and the soul gets enslaved by earthly trappings. It brings about complete darkness to the soul: confusion of basic concepts, disarray in business, grim despair in the heart. Such a man is like a splinter in a brook, flowing downstream, pushed and shoved around by incidental influences, with no control of his destiny, no account of the past, present and future of his journey.

On the contrary, when our mind is sound, then the fear of God reigns in the soul, keeping the conscience clean and free from external bonds.   Then you become circumspect in your everyday business and set up your whole life routine uniformly and carefully, guided by conscience alone, never plunging into worldliness, as if receiving wings from the expectation of the eternal bliss.  That ought to give you clear view of the entire course of your life with all its complications, and everything will be open for you, as if lit by “the light which is in thee”  [Lk. 11:36].

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