Christ is the Light and the Day
Saint Cyprian tells us that the light of Christ produces humility in a soul. The more a soul is exposed to the radiance that shines from the Face of Christ, the more will that soul sink into a profound humility, the humility of wordless adoration. The Sacred Host is the image and the emblem of the Humility of God. The proud, and the powers of darkness that hold sway over them, either melt in the presence of the Sacred Host or shrink back before It.
“Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee from before his face. As smoke vanisheth, so let them vanish away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God” (Psalm 67:2–3).
From the Treatise on Jealousy and Envy by St Cyprian, Bishop & Martyr
Beloved brethren, the Lord, taking thought for this risk, that none should fall into the snare of death through jealousy of his brother, when his disciples asked him which among them should be the greatest, said, “Whosoever shall be least among you all, the same shall be great.” He cut off all envy by his reply. He plucked out and tore away every cause and matter of gnawing envy. A disciple of Christ must not be jealous, must not be envious. With us there can be no contest for exaltation; from humility we grow to the highest attainments; we have learned in what way we may be pleasing. And finally, the Apostle Paul, instructing and warning, that we who, illuminated by the light of Christ, have escaped from the darkness of the conversation of night, should walk in the deeds and works of light, writes and says, “The night has passed over, and the day is approaching: let us therefore cast away the works of darkness, and let us put upon us the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in lusts and wantonness, not in strifes and jealousy.”
If the darkness has departed from your breast, if the night is scattered therefrom, if the gloom is chased away, if the brightness of day has illuminated your senses, if you have begun to be a man of light, do those things which are Christ’s, because Christ is the Light and the Day. Why do you rush into the darkness of jealousy? Why do you enfold yourself in the cloud of malice? Why do you quench all the light of peace and charity in the blindness of envy? Why do you return to the devil, whom you had renounced? Why do you stand like Cain? For that he who is jealous of his brother, and has him in hatred, is bound by the guilt of homicide, the Apostle John declares in his epistle, saying, “Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has life abiding in him.” And again: “He that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes, because that darkness has blinded his eyes.”
Whosoever hates, says he, his brother, walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes. For he goes unconsciously to Gehenna, in ignorance and blindness; he is hurrying into punishment, departing, that is, from the light of Christ, who warns and says, “I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” But he follows Christ who stands in his precepts, who walks in the way of his teaching, who follows his footsteps and his ways, who imitates that which Christ both did and taught; in accordance with what Peter also exhorts and warns, saying, “Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps.
