What a Life! for December 6-10, 2006

Jesus told us, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) All of us have experienced both light and darkness in our lives.

We have known the darkness of fearful world events.

We have known the darkness of our own pettiness.

We have known the darkness of grasping when we should have held tenderly.

We have known the darkness of broken promises — our own and others.

We have known the darkness of unfulfilled dreams of our youth.

We have known the darkness of disappointment.

We have known the darkness of chronic illness.

We have known the darkness of loss.

We have known the darkness of impatience with others, even those we love n especially those we love.

We have known the darkness of envying what others have.

We have known the darkness of giving up on ourselves and giving in too soon.

We have known the darkness of feeling empty in a land of plenty.

We have known the darkness of resting easy with the “way things are,” even when it means that children go to bed hungry, working families have no health-care benefits, and men, women, and children around the world are being oppressed.

We have known the darkness of sin and our own limitations.

However, in the midst of our darkness, we take courage for the light of Christ shines forth. The light of Christ shines in our lives, our homes, our workplaces, and our neighborhoods. The light of Christ shines in the kindness we show one another, in our moments of generosity, in our acts of courage, in our exercise of virtue, and in our acts of wild abandon for the love of God. The light of Christ shines in the eyes of those we love, and in the hearts of those who love us.

We live in a mixture of light and shadows. We are witnesses to the truth that the light has come into this world and the darkness cannot overcome it. All the darkness in the world can never overcome even the smallest light. And the light of Christ is no small light.

We must be aware of the darkness that exists both within us and the darkness that surrounds us. We must allow the light of Christ to shine on the dark areas of our lives with which we do not want to deal. What we often do is limit Christ’s light in our lives. We invite him to come into the “living room” of our lives that we have cleaned up, but we do not want him to go into those other rooms that are dark and messy. We are too embarrassed to invite him into those areas. Yet, that is where he needs to go.

We also have to be aware of the darkness around us. At times, we feel pulled toward the darkness. Jesus told us, “Though the light has come into the world, people have shown they prefer darkness to light because their deeds were evil.” In other words, we live where we want to live. We can choose to live in darkness or we can choose to live in light.

The Good News is that God loves us with a never-ending love. Out of love, God has sent Jesus to us to be the way back to the Father. The bad news is that we can choose the darkness instead of the light. May we dedicate ourselves to seek the light, to follow the light daily by the practice of our faith, and to let the light of Christ shine through us to everyone we meet.