Light in the World

A Reflection on this Friday’s Gospel, Matthew 6:19-23 – 21 June 2024

    On a sweltering summer day, my family and I visited a local cavern. It was fantastic to experience the chill as we descended into the cave as a group of about twenty people. The light was dim but enough to allow us to see each other and the highlights of the rock formations the guide described. Things were going well until the lights blinked and then went out. The darkness was so thick you could feel it.

     When the lights did not immediately come back on, people started to panic. The guide quickly turned on her flashlight and told us to carefully follow her light. We did, but it was not easy going. She is the only one with any light. The rest of us tripped and stumbled into each other. Though people tried to be kind when knocked about, fear was evident in every voice.

     The voice and light of our guide was the only real calming influence. She slowly and safely guided us to an assembly point at about the moment the lights came back on. Euphoria erupted with the lights; darkness vanquished. The tour ended and many stood thanking our guide. Though the lights were out for no more than ten minutes, people exuberantly praised her professionalism and calm demeanor. I am sure that the tips that day were generous. Many expressed their feelings of faith, hope, and even a bit of love in, and for, our guide and her light.

     St Paul wrote in his First Letter to the Corinthians:

At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:12–13 NABRE)

     The Greek word for indistinctly is ainigma (αἴνιγμα). It is the origin of our word enigma, something mysterious, obscure, shrouded in darkness. St Paul reminds us that we live in a world that seems to exist in a perpetual gloom and darkness. We seek the light of understanding. It is not too different from the gloom and darkness of the cave. Though we shall see and understand when we enter our beatitude, in between we depend upon faith, hope, and love, the theological virtues, to provide direction to find our way through this present darkness. They give us the strength, both for ourselves and others, to navigate the gloom into safety.

     The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the theological virtues,

“Are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life.” (CCC 1813)

     God shares His light through these three theological virtues.

• Faith allows us to navigate the darkness of fear. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

• Hope enables us to stand up when we stumble and continue. God is trustworthy. (Hebrews 10:23)

• Love assures us of the help of our Lord, the light of the world. God loves us first (John 4:19), no questions asked, as we move through the gloom. He calls us then to become the light of the world for all who are trapped in darkness. (Matthew 5:14)

     Note, the Catechism says that the three theological virtues “make us capable of acting.” It is not automatic. We must embrace, live and breathe, the theological virtues. They must animate our every action. It is then that like that guide in the cave, we share the saving light with the world.

     Jesus tells us in the Gospel today,

"The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness.” (Matthew 6:22–23 NABRE)

     Jesus is the light that fills us. The theological virtues are the physical expression of that light in the world. It is what fills the eye. We read in the Book of Daniel:

“Those with insight shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, And those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.” (Daniel 12:3 NABRE)

     Today, and every day, infused with faith, hope, and love in your life, fill the world with Jesus, the Light of the World. So many need your witness of the Light in this world, shrouded in gloom. St Paul writes to the Philippians:

Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, (Philippians 2:14–15 NABRE).

     So, shine with faith, with hope, and mostly. with love!

End Notes:

Blogger. (n.d.). Shining as Lights in the World. Always Learning. https://lorialexander.blogspot.com/2013/10/shining-as-lights-in-world.html

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). 2nd Ed. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000. Print.

New American Bible. Revised Edition (NABRE). Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011. Print.