the world and I go to the Father." It will not do to say that Christ, by reason of the human nature He had assumed, could go to the Father, for He took His human nature so intimately as to become one with Himself, so that He can say of it: " I, and the Father, and this My human nature are one." " To leave the world and go to the Father," has a deeper meaning than that. In Holy Writ the word "world" is used sometimes in a good, sometimes in a bad sense. The good world are all created things of which we read that: " God saw all things that He had made, and they were very good." The bad world are sinners, of whom Our Lord says: €t These My disciples are not of this world even as I am not of this world." For, here below, there are two elements, the rational and the material — the rational of the heavens, heavenly; and the material of the earth, earthly; the rational servants of Christ ordering themselves and all things to God; and irrational sinners who give to the earth their body and mind, heart and soul. Now, were it not for Christ's Redemption, we should all be part of the evil world, but by His grace we leave it and approach God. Now, this approach is accomplished by three steps, prefigured in Jacob's ladder. The first step is from sin to grace by the acquisition of faith, hope and charity; and the second step, from grace to glory, when faith is lost in the vision of God; when hope becomes possession and charity alone remains. These two steps, by which we leave the world and go to the Father, are peculiar to the souls of mortal men, but
