Ordering our Life in Christ

A monstrance is a sacred vessel that contains the sacred Host so that Jesus in the form of bread can be adored.  If we have been to a Perpetual Adoration Chapel found in our churches the vessel containing the sacred Host on display inside the chapel is the monstrance.  The word monstrance comes from the Latin word “monstrare” which means “to show”.  The vessel is very ornate in design usually forming a sunburst to symbolize Christ’s radiance of light, love and holiness.

The sunburst design of the monstrance also has a spiritual lesson to teach.  The rays around the sacred Host represent all our activities in life that should be ordered and centered in Christ.    Each ray could be our social life, our family life, office life, school life, or recreation life that if we put Christ at the center of all these different aspects of our lives, our life will be put into order and harmony.

Recalling our notion of “transcendentals” in Philosophy, we said that all things that exist or “beings” in this world have a common characteristic of “one, true, good and beautiful”.  “One” means we perceive each object in this world as a “unity” and not divided or scattered.  “True” means any object in this world living or non-living can be “known” by us or we have the capacity to know its scientific, psychological, or spiritual truth depending on what object we refer to. “Good” refers to things as being “positive and desirable by nature” because all things created by God are good.  And lastly beauty means there is harmony in all things created or it is pleasing to the senses.  They are called the transcendentals because they “transcend” all things meaning they are present and common in all things created.

The Sacred Host is beautiful because it is one, true and good.  Our lives will likewise become beautiful if we follow the transcendentals or apply the transcendentals in a moral way.  “One” – if we live our lives as one in Christ or united in Christ, we will live a consistent, and united life and not a double life.  Double life means we live a different life outside of our faith or as they often say a life outside of Sunday church.  “True” – means we are always truthful and need not hide anything from anyone.  We behave as we really are whether somebody is watching us or not. “Good” – our lives are founded on moral goodness or the virtues and anything that has a good foundation will always have something good built on it. And finally, there is “beauty”.  Beauty is not only physical but more spiritual.  There is beauty in St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and the rest of the saints that can only be seen by the heart and mind and not by the eyes.  It is a beauty that is rooted in moral goodness.

 

No matter how busy we are with all the different activities and roles in life we play, if we order all of it in Christ then there will be oneness, truth, goodness and beauty in it.  When our Lord said to Martha, “Martha, Martha you are worried and anxious about many things and yet only one thing is necessary.” (Lk. 10:41) When we order all of our many things in life to the one thing necessary: Christ, then all our worries and anxieties will disappear because Christ puts the right order and harmony in them.  “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things (order and harmony in our lives) will be given to you as well.” (Mt. 6:33)