Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/239

 fit it  is  to  be  raised  from  the  death  of  sin  or  tepidity, and to  be  placed  in  the  bright  light  of  the  children  of God,  and  to  be  enabled  to  pursue  the  road  of  virtue  with fervor. This benefit  Christ  will  bestow  upon  you  to-day in the  Eucharist  if  you  approach  Him  with  fervor. Hence He  is  called  the  bread  of  life;  and  if  we  shall  owe to Him  the  resurrection  of  our  bodies  "at  the  last  day" (John vr.  40),  so  are  we  now  indebted  to  Him  for  the resurrection of  our  souls. (Jno. vi.  35,  40.)

III. The marks  by  which  we  may  discover  if  we  have really risen  with  Christ  are  our  attention  to  spiritual things, and  our  disregard  of  the  things  of  this  world. "If ye  be  risen  with  Christ,"  says  St.  Paul,  "seek  the things  that  are  above." (Colos. iii.  1.)  Seek,  therefore, only heavenly  things,  and  as  "  Christ  rising  again  from the  dead,  dieth  now  no  more"  (Rom.  vi.  9),  so  you,  having risen  from  the  state  of  sin  or  tepidity  to  grace  and fervor, persevere  in  your  "newness  of  life,"  and  continually guard  against  relapsing  into  your  former  state.

I. Sufficient  time  having  elapsed  to  evince  the  reality of Christ's  death,  early  on  the  third  day  His  divine  soul hastened to  bring  the  holy  Fathers  out  of  Limbo,  to  comfort His  blessed  mother  and  His  disconsolate  disciples, and to  fill  the  whole  world  with  His  glory. How the holy prisoners in  Limbo  rejoiced  when  they  saw  that  the hour of  their  deliverance  had  arrived! Free in  like manner, O  Lord! my soul  from  "  the  lion's  mouth"  and from "  the  deep  lake,"  and  suffer  not  my  enemies,  the devil, the  world,  and  the  flesh,  to  domineer  over  me.

II. What were  the  feelings  of  the  holy  Fathers, when,