This must continue till a sufficient number have evolved who can bear the burden of this dense lump of darkness which we call the earth, and which hangs as a millstone about the neck of humanity, an impediment to further spiritual growth. Until we learn to follow “in His steps,” we can rise no higher towards the Light.
It is related that when Leonardo da Vinci had completed his famous painting, “The Last Supper,” he asked a friend to look at it and tell him what he thought of it.
The friend looked at it critically for a few minutes and then said:
“I think you have made a mistake in painting the goblets from which the apostles drink so ornamental and to resemble gold. People in their positions would not drink from such expensive vessels.”
Da Vinci then drew his brush through the entire set of vessels which had drawn the criticism of his friend, but he was heartbroken, for he had painted that picture with his soul rather than with his hands, and he had prayed over it that it might speak a message to the world. He had put all the greatness of his art and the whole-hearted devotion of his soul into that effort to paint a Christ who should speak the word that would lead men to emulate His deeds.
Can you see Him as He sits there at that festive board, THE EMBODIMENT OF LIGHT, and speaks those wonderful, mystic words: This is my body, this is my blood, given for you—a living sacrifice.
In the past period of our spiritual career we have been looking for a Light exterior to ourselves, but now we have arrived at the point where we must look for the Christ light within and emulate Him by making of ourselves “living sacrifices” as He is doing. Let us remember that when the sacrifice which lies before our door seems pleasant and to our liking, when we seem able to pick and choose our work in His vineyard and do what pleases us, we are not making a real sacrifice as He did, nor are we when we are seen of men and applauded for our benevolence. But when we are ready to follow Him from that festive board where He was the honored one among friends, into the garden of Gethsemane where He was alone and wrestled with the great problem before Him while His friends slept, then are we making a living sacrifice.
When we are content to follow “in His steps” to that point of self-sacrifice where we can say from the bottom of our hearts, “Thy will, not mine,” then we have surely the light within, and there will never henceforth be for us that which we feel as darkness. We shall walk in the light.
This is our glorious privilege, and the meditation upon the words of the apostle, “God is Light,” will help us to realize this ideal provided we add to our faith, works, and say by our deeds as did the Christ of da Vinci, “This is my body and this is my blood,” a living sacrifice upon the altar of humanity.