Jesus Is Very Much The Light Of The World

Friday of 23rd week in course 2024

Today’s Scriptures need to be read with the saying of Jesus found in the Gospel of John. Jesus said “I am the Light of the world.” We see it again in the Book of Revelations, as the description of the eternal city of God tells us that there is no need for lamps or any other artificial light in the Holy City. Why not? Because the Lamb—Jesus in the Resurrection—is the light of the city. Any other context for today’s readings will cause us to miss the mark.

Now the psalmist today is giving us the other side of the relationship between God and humans. The context, again, is the very real Temple in Jerusalem, sometime between the builder, Solomon, and the first destruction by the Babylonians. The Levite is likely one living out in the sticks, not in Jerusalem service. He longs for the Temple, to be close to YHWH, the living God. He envies the birds like swallows who can build their nests on the walls and porticoes of the Temple, living there with their young. That is a picture of each of us. We all are missing something, or rather, Someone.

Luke’s Gospel has several sayings that look shoved together. But they all have the same underlying idea: we see because light comes into our eyes. Now it’s obvious that a person who cannot see anything has no business leading anybody, let alone another afflicted with blindness, right? That’s a logical tautology. There is another missing something or somebody here, as well. Where do both blind folks want to go? To the Teacher, of course. If you spend enough time with the Teacher, and have open ears, then you will learn enough to teach others, even if you cannot see. You might even learn enough to remove the moral logs from your eyes, and then you’ll be able to see.

These days we are surrounded by people who have moral logs in their eyes. I think, for instance, of politicians who say that because we can’t agree on what age an unborn child must be before we protect that child from abortion, then we must agree that the child should be killable at any time during pregnancy. Does that make any sense at all? That is a moral log that one of our major parties says must remain in their eyes, and has to be shoved into everyone’s eyes. It also has to be the fundamental plank in that party’s platform. Is that a plank, or just a log? Doesn’t matter. It’s evil.

If anyone wants to preach about morals, whether lay person or clergy, that person must, as St. Paul says, speak to the people in words they can understand. Moreover, that preacher must exercise self-control. Moderation in everything. But all of us are called to be evangelists to the folks around us. That means all of us must practice self-control, moderation. That’s in speaking, eating, drinking and our actions. Every day we should think about our interactions with others, and ask ourselves if we were effective in sharing the good news of Christ. Then repent if we haven’t, and give thanks for the grace received if we have.