Preserving the Light of Christ

The following meditation was recorded in front of a live audience. 

In this meditation, Fr. Peter Armenio explores the parables of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32) and the sower (Luke 8:4-15), illustrating how God’s grace transforms small beginnings into extraordinary outcomes. Through these parables, he highlights the importance of receptivity to the Holy Spirit. 

He also reflects on the "vertical" and "horizontal" dimensions of love, symbolized by the cross. Prayer, as the foundation (vertical), unites us to God, while love for others (horizontal) flows from this connection.

And, drawing from the life of St. Josemaria Escriva, Fr. Peter shares practical examples of how small, consistent acts of faith—like mental prayer, Eucharistic devotion, and the Rosary—can illuminate the world and remind us that even the smallest seeds of grace, nurtured with humility and perseverance, have the power to grow into something magnificent.

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Transcript

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. 

I would title this meditation as “Maintaining the Light”, “Preserving the Light”. And there is uh, the Lord likes to give parables of all sorts, but he has a soft spot for seeds. You know, seeing so many plants and so much farming, and he- as a professional carpenter, he would make tools for farming. And so, he's very familiar with the real world of that time and you could tell by his parables. And he likes to use the analogies of seeds. Uh, one of the more, the most noticeable one is the parable of the mustard seed, a perfect example. “Another parable he set before them saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven,’” which is the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of joy, peace, justice, freedom, love, forgiveness, consolation- that's his kingdom. You know? It's his presence, peace. “Another parable he set before them saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed,’” now it's not a woman this time it's a man, “which a man took and sowed in his field.” All right, “This indeed is the smallest of all seeds.”

Now, let's just detain ourselves. We're going to do more seeds. We're doing a number of seeds during this meditation, all right, this is the first seed. And I would say we're, we're kind of on a human level, we're kind of crazy. I mean, we're talking about changing the world, and you're just a handful of women here and- and I'm an old guy in the twilight of my life, and we want to change the world. Isn't that a little bit much? Is that exaggerated and that sounds kind of fanatical and unrealistic? Silly? 

Well, Jesus says that his kingdom is like a mustard seed. It's the smallest of all seeds. It seems very, very insignificant. Well, the birth of Jesus seemed insignificant. Only few smelly shepherds were there. That's it, and an ox and a donkey, a poor village woman, a poor carpenter. The most important event in the history of the universe, which was the Redemption, the Resurrection of Jesus, and his fan club was his mom, a teenage boy, a converted prostitute, uh- that's about it. And then finally, one of the thieves became one of his fans. But it wasn't exactly an overwhelming crowd who were cheering him on. This is the most important event. 

Three little smelly kids in Fatima, over 100 years ago, a little bit over 100 years ago, were told by the Blessed Mother that Communism would collapse. It certainly did in 1989. Uh- this is Our Lord's style. Opus Dei, which has- became a solemn teaching of the Church in the Second Vatican Council, a poor, almost destitute, priest of 26 years of age. Now he seems like he was an infant. I mean, when I first heard the story as a younger man, I said, “Well, you know, 26 is 26,” but now I think, you know, that's almost infancy here, you know. And- and he had well, the only thing he had going for him, he said, was a good sense of humor. I think you need more than that to change the world. You need a good sense of humor to even think about it. 

And you- and you get this light, and then you know, whatever it is, 60 plus years later, um you have a million people, or hundreds of thousands of people at his beatification and at his canonization. So, I don't know. So that's- the Lord is saying do not judge a seed by its cover. “It's the smallest of all seeds. But when it grows- it grows up, and when it grows up, it is larger than any herb and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in its branches.” And what's the secret of the mustard seed? It keeps growing and growing, and the life force can be translated into love, self-giving love. 

I mean, that's- that's who Christ is. He's the incarnation of love. And we become more Christ like to the degree we love more. In a vertical way, in terms of prayer, and in a horizontal way in terms of loving others. The vertical comes first you, and the icon of love is the cross. The vertical comes first, that represents prayer. The horizontal comes second, because you can't hang, I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but you can’t hang a horizontal without a vertical. You know, I'm not an eng-, you know, I'm not a math major, but I know that much, right? 

So, and why? And why the mustard seed? Because it grows from within. And the life force, you cannot extract a life force, okay? These are petunias. Here's the life force of a petunia right here, here is the life force of Ginny. Here's a life force of Joey. No, it's, there's a force in there that represents the grace of God. And how does a seed grow? It doesn't just elongate. Matter of fact, it grows through conversion, through metamorphosis. It- it changes. It changes and it becomes more lively. The life starts to gain momentum in a seed. 

And a seed is in suspended animation until the life force, it's there, it's in, it's there, it's potentially there, or it's suspended until it's activated. And how does a seed get activated? Well, it gets activated by water, which is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. It gets activated by heat, which is- you're not going to get much in this weather. Heat and sunlight, all traditional images of the Holy Spirit. And the beauty of a plant and the fruitfulness of the plant represents the overflow of love, of winning other apostles. Plants and seeds are very individual. The mustard seed is different than the- than the tomato plant or the wheat or the wheat or the vine, but they're all bearing fruit. 

It represents all of us. Sanctity is very personal. Each person here, the Lord calls in a little different way, because we're all different, you know, it's personal. It's the, generic sanctity is being Christ like, but we're all Christ like, in our own very personal way. And since God is unadulterated love, he deals just like what you do. I mean, you have your friends, and each friend, you deal a little differently. You know, some have thick skin, some have thin skin. You know, some enjoy certain kinds of conversation, and as we become a better friend, we adapt our love to each friend, each sibling, etc. God does the same thing with us. You know, each one is dealt with very personally, individually, but the seeds grows within. 

But what we want to meditate on here a little bit is the other activating force. It’s the less dignified, you know you got light, heat, water, which signifies divine intervention. And then there's human intervention, which is the soil. You know, in Greek, I think soil is called humus which means also you get the word humility from that. And so, you know the soil is- so, you know the soil is the dirt. Anyway, the soil activates the growth of the seed. You can have all the water you want, all the light you want, but you’re not going to get an oak tree out of it. You're not going to get a mustard plant. You need the soil. So hence, that's why I give this meditation, because it's about recep-receptivity, maintaining the light. 

And let's- let me read this, so Jesus explains a little bit how our receptivity works. How do we maintain the light? How do we allow the Lord- God to transform us more completely? Because we're called to be saints, even before the creation of the world. That's what Paul says to the Ephesians. “You are called to be holy. God has called you to be holy before the creation of the world.” All right, here it goes, “When a very great crowd was gathering,” bear with me, “and people from every town were resorting to him, he said in a parable, ‘The sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some seed fell upon the wayside and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air ate it up. Another seed fell upon the rock, and as soon as it had sprung up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Another seed fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. Another seed fell upon good ground and sprang up and yielded fruit a hundredfold.’ As he said these things, he cried out, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’” 

So, he's talking about evangelization. As usual, the disciples don't get it. They're kind of simple guys, you know, rough and tumble fishermen, one former mafioso, that's St. Matthew. So, they don't understand the parable. You know, with all due respect to Our Lord, I don't understand it either, unless he explained it. “But his disciples then began to ask him what this parable meant. And he said to them, ‘To you, it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables. And seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’” 

Now, the parable is this, the seed is the Word of God. All right, let's detain ourselves. The seed is the Word of God. The Word of God par excellence is the second person of the Blessed Trinity. The Word of God is Christ in his divinity, the Word made flesh that we just reflected on in the Angelus is the Word of God made flesh. And so, the seed, the life force in that seed, is the Word of God. It's the life of Christ that we acquired when we were born again in baptism. All of us have that little seedling Christ in us. That was gratuitous. That's where we share the same religious views as the Lutherans. We- that grace of receiving the life of Christ is gratuitous. We didn't earn it. It's impossible to earn it. It's the fruit of the Redemption. But, this is where we part ways, we have a role to play to allow that seed to grow. 

And now there's a-and I don't want to digress too much, but now that I hear the word, you know, in the olden days, he or she is a baptized Catholic. I mean, that's a badge of honor. Still is, just for the record, but, but in certain contexts, I'd say frequent contexts, it’s not a badge of honor anymore. Baptized Catholic means that's all you got. You got baptized, and that's it. And maybe it'll be a funeral Catholic, you know, hopefully not. That you're baptized, but that's it. The faith is totally irrelevant. You're baptized. But that's it. 

Anyway, in baptism, we have received that seedling form of Christ. All right, so Jesus is this great teacher, and he's going to say, these are the four forms of receptivity. Four don't work in terms of winning other people to God. Only one works, right? So, he's a pretty honest teacher, and he gives four levels of receptivity. “Now, the parable is this, the seed is the Word of God, and those by the wayside are they who have heard then the devil comes and takes away the Word from their heart that they may not believe and be saved.” 

Now at face value, I'm tempted, but no longer, to skip this. Well, let's ask a question in the front of Our Lord and put words in the Lord's mouth. “Have I said, am I saying something in the Gospel that doesn't apply to you personally?” And the Lord says, “Well, there's another reality that you're ignoring.” “What is that Lord?” “I'm talking about, if the devil- what's the devil trying to do?” He obviously tries to tempt people to mortal sin, and he succeeds. But I think even a greater demonic project of- is to undermine any disciple of Christ who wants to be a saint and change the world. That he, has to stop that person. 

And how does he stop that person? I mean, he's clever, and he's the father of lies. And what does he do? He's- he tempts the person to stop praying. That simple. I'm going to undermine those efforts to unite to Christ, because if you unite yourself to Christ, you're going to be like that mustard seed. You're going to grow and grow and grow and grow and grow. You're going to win people over. And I don't need to make an act of faith. 

I- you can't see from here, but I could open up my calendar and you'll see it painted with names. It has nothing to do with popularity, it has nothing to do with advertisement, that has nothing to do with marketing. And I got another pastoral task, so I- I have to cut back, but I'm trying to keep cutting back to a minimum. Young people keep bringing young people to confession and direction. I think it’s one obviously, I think that's where the rubber hits the road. And so, it's working. I mean, it is. It is actually working. 

Young people are doing that. Older people are doing it too, but the younger people are doing it more. And the reason why they're doing it is because, on some level, not perfect, you know, I'm not going to give you that much credit. On some level, they're witnessing that Christ is real. On some level. Their joy, their wisdom, their friendship, their stability. They're showing that, hey, listen, you can live, the mora- you can live a moral life. It really is. And they also, you know, no one's perfect, but they're also proving that chastity is a joyful affirmation. It's not a liability. It's not, you know, God always knocking the ice cream cone out of our hands. It's a joyful affirmation, that the beatitude really is true, you know, those who have the cleanliness of heart can see God in a clearer way. 

And so, it is working. And why is it working? Do they have some kind of charisma or some kind of pizzaz? Yes, maybe, maybe not, that- that's- that's very secondary. They're praying, and it's very- and they're Eucharistic. And they include the Rosary. As I said, I'm not ready- no one's ready for canonization, but it is a game changer. And so, what does the devil do? He will, and maybe I could tell- even people who have been around Opus Dei for a while, have heard the story, but it doesn’t- it merits repeating. This is a while ago in the 40s, a group of you know, place like, similar to Shelbourne, but a student residence with a, I don’t know, a house of 50 men you know, or even more, in this big student residence. 

They have a lot more of them in Europe than here, and part of the spirit of Opus Dei is to create the ambiance of a home. And you have the domestic staff who pray for the people you know they serve, and then also create an ambiance of Nazareth. And that- that's part of evangelizing. It's part of teaching people the Gospel to create a family atmosphere. So, anyway, there- this thing's under construction, and you know how that is, nothing's finished, no deadlines are met, and these kids are moving in anyway, and they have to cook for the kids, the young college students, and they're fit to be tied, because their work is very much undermined by these workers not finishing, tracking in dirt, etc. 

And, you know, if you watch the movie of St. Josemaria, he's kind of, you know, he's kind of a strong man, you know, he has a strong personality, and he's not given into lamentation or- or too many tears. And so, the women sit him down and say, “You know, Father, you know, we got, we got some issues here, you know, they're not meeting deadlines. The place is chaotic. Everything's in disarray. We're not punctual in serving the meals. We can't clean up the rooms,” you know, on and on and on. 

“And we're so busy, and we're in- our schedule is so disrupted,” And he, I'm sure, just being a regular guy, you know, I'm not saying this is a plus but, “Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, oh okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.” And in his mind he goes, “Ladies you’re done, you got to get back to work,” and she says, “And you know, under these conditions, we don't have time to pray.” The guy, he burst into tears. He started to sob and he had to leave the room. He was embarrassed. It was kind of like a knee-jerk reaction, and these women got pretty shocked. And he comes back and, you know, he composes himself, and he said, “You know, I'm sorry to react this way, but if we don't pray, this, you know, we've got, it's not going to work. We're going- we're going to fail.” He said, “You can't do that.” And so anyway, he gave a game plan of following the Lord. 

And so that's what he does. And each Epistle, this is probably the genius of St. Paul, he is always- each one is very different. Each one is different. And here he's addressing, who's he addressing? This is the early Church he's addressing, probably, my guess is 50 families in these letters. These are formative letters, and they're written by the Holy Spirit. And remember, I was reading, you know, all the difficulties the early Christians were facing in that paganized world. And so, what does Paul tell the Ephesians? These, these 50 families, and they read this letter, you know, he says the following, “For the rest my brothers,” excuse me, “For the rest, brethren, be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of his power, put on the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” 

And basically, he's talking about mental prayer, Eucharistic devotion, but with military symbolism, but it's a war of love and peace. But he uses military symbolism. “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood.” When you have rampant, when you have euphemisms that advocate the destruction of unborn children, when you equate marriage with whatever you make of it with same-sex partnerships, when you put people to death because they are terminally ill, when you have this much crime in the street, this is more than human weakness. When you have a divorce rate so high, this is more than human weakness. “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness. Against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high.”

This is the only time he speaks this language. “Therefore, take up the armor of God that you may be able to resist the evil day and stand in all things perfect,” which is an appeal to holiness. “Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth,” another word for Christ, “and having put on the breastplate of justice and having your feet shod with the readiness of the Gospel of peace. In all things, taking up the shield of faith with which you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit that is the Word of God.”

So, what is he telling these early Christians? In maybe Opus Dei lingo, or St. Josemaria lingo, the plan of life, the plan to be a saint. Mental- contemplation of the Word of God that you call mental prayer. If you’re more classical about it you call it Lectio Divina, but let's just call it mental prayer, let’s keep it simple. It's Eucharistic piety. It's- it's contemplating the Word of God through Mary and the Rosary. It's getting feedback from the Holy Spirit in spiritual reading. It's kind of a plan of holiness, and that's what Paul is telling these people. And he said, “You do this, you have nothing to fear. You're going to win the game. You're going to win this. You're going to defeat- but if you stop, you're not going to win.” Now that's- what “And take- and with prayer, with all prayer and supplications, pray at all times in the spirit, there- therein, be vigilant in all perseverance and supplications for all the saints and for me.”

So yeah, receptivity number one applies to me, and you're probably saying to yourself, “You better pray to your guardian angel, because you've got three more levels to go and you got two minutes. And you know, you're not going to prolong this more than you have to.” Anyway, I'm going to skip to uh real quickly, I'm going to skip number two. Uh, Lord, I only have two minutes. So, you know, I know it applies to us too, but you know, “And that which fell among the thorns, these are they who have heard, and they go their way and are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” Yeah, they hear it. They cut corners. Our Lord says, “Listen, I want your heart. I don't want you to just show up. I don't want you to rattle off Hail Marys. I don’t- I- you can even be distracted. But I want your heart, and I want you to make me the center of your life. You know, last time I checked, I'm God, and I created you, so I deserve to tell you that. And as a man, I died on the cross for you. Yeah, you- I want you to be the I need to be the center of your life so you bear fruit.” 

And these people here, you know, they go to Mass, they show up, they get prayers done. It's hit and miss, on and on, but they're not determined to become totally centered on him and- and to do that, we have to be like the apostles. I'm not saying we have to pitch a tent in the backyard, but I need to leave all things, which means, “Lord, you're going to be first. You know, whether in my profession, you're going to be first, in my marital relationship, you're going to be first, in my social life, you're going to be first. My prayer life is going to be a non-negotiable. I want to try this, and I want you to help me out.”

Because it's kind of interesting. And I'll finish with this, “But upon the good ground these are they who with a right and good heart, having heard the word hold it fast and bear fruit in patience.” Now if you look up the Greek, or look up the Latin, the literal translation of “with a good and right heart” is optimo corde. Optimo in Latin means best- with a best heart. So, I guess you know, the English is “with a right and good heart.” But the Latin and the Greek probably even more poignant, I have to give him my best heart, and I'll bear fruit and patience. 

And I want to finish up asking, Lord, give us the faith. Mary, intercede for us, that we believe this point, and especially the younger people, the apostles of the New Millennium, and especially female young people. That's what the Church is saying. You know, you're the- you're the leaven. “We are children of God, bearers of the only flame that can light up the paths of the earth, for souls of the only brightness which can never be darkened, dimmed, or overshadowed. The Lord uses us as torches to make that light shine. It depends on us that many should not remain in darkness but walk instead along paths that lead to eternal life.” Intercede, Mother of God, that I take this point to heart.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations which you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help to put them into effect. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.