Daily reflection _ the light of truth and love


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.  
Deacon John Ruscheinsky
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!