THE LIGHT OF TRUTH AND LOVE
There
is great freedom and joys for us as we continue to live in God's Light and seek
His truth, for there is no need for us to hide the Light or our gift of faith.
Do we want to remain
in darkness, or do we truly want our light to shine through? Do we recognize
the light in others and ourselves? Darkness is the inability to see who God has
really created us to be, or to just be focused on ourselves and not see the goodness
and beauty of life. Amidst the joys and sorrows of daily life, we are called to
recognize God in our daily living and all the gifts that His presence entails.
This is our life and our Faith!
We hear, in this
week's Gospel readings, about the seed of God's Word that is planted in each of
us. We also hear about sins that are forgiven and debts that are being erased,
and above all, we have been invited to eat at the Lord's Table. When the baby
Jesus is brought to the temple by His parents, Simeon holds the Child in his
arms and proclaims that Jesus is the Light to reveal God's glory to the
nations. We see the Light of Jesus Christ shine throughout the Gospels. There
is no need for us to hide the Light, or hide that gift of faith.
What does the image of
a light and a lamp tell us about God's Kingdom? "His Word is a lamp that
guides our steps" (Ps 119:105). God's grace not only illumines the
darkness in our lives, but it also fills us with spiritual light, joy and
peace. Jesus uses the image of a lamp to describe how His disciples are to live
in the light of His truth and love. Just as natural light illumines the
darkness and enables one to see visually, so the Light of Christ shines in the
hearts of believers and enables us to see the heavenly reality of God's
Kingdom. In fact, our mission is to be light-bearers of Christ so that others
may see the truth of the Gospel and be freed from the blindness of sin.
Jesus remarks that
nothing can remain hidden and secret. We can try to hide things from others,
from ourselves and even from God. But, nonetheless, everything is known to Him,
for He sees all. There is great freedom and joys for us as we continue to live
in God's Light and seek His truth, for there is no need for us to hide the
Light or our gift of faith. We can reflect His light to all who sit in
darkness, wherever we may find them. A dark world waits to be led by Christ's
light shining among them.
I would like to share
these words of hope from a poem written by Deborah Gordon Cooper titled,
Collecting Light:
Across the street
a neighbor strings white lights
along
the eaves of his house.
Across the world
they sleep out in the cold,
our neighbors too,
wakened by gunfire.
I see the way the chickadees
take
turns at the feeder.
I watch a woman take
her husband's hand.
I see the way the sun will find
the only interruption
in dark clouds,
to toss this amber light
across
the pines.
I watch the way a young man
lifts his mother from
the wheelchair
to the car,
the shawl he lays
across
her lap.
I save up every scrap
of light,
because I know that it will take
each tiny consolation
every day
to
mend the world.
Yes! May we save up
every scrap of light in our lives, too!