Chapter 3: In the Light of the Master
In the 25th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus expands on the beatitude that calls blessed the merciful. If we seek the holiness pleasing to God’s eyes, this text offers us one clear criterion on which we will be judged.
“I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you visited me.”
Holiness, then, is not about swooning in mystic rapture. As Pope John Paul said, “If we truly start out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he himself wished to be identified.” …In this call to recognize him in the poor and the suffering, we see revealed the very heart of Christ, his deepest feelings and choices that every saint seeks to imitate… Our Lord made it very clear that holiness cannot be understood or lived apart from these demands, for mercy is “the beating heart of the Gospel.”