LIGHT FOR PEOPLE WHO DWELL IN DARKNESS


MONDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY

1 Jn 3:22-4:6; Ps 2:7-8,10-11; Mt 4:12-17,23-25

Moving from Darkness to Great Light

God, in his infinite love and goodness, created us in his own image as rational beings. The implication of this is that we must walk by the way of knowledge and not by the impulses of the senses. Our nature being rational, demands we walk by the light of reason. The ability to walk devotedly in light of reason is what we lost when our first parents abandoned the word of God and followed the attraction of the sensible things. Saint John the Evangelist presented the Eternal Word as the One who enlightens every man that comes into existence. Our rational nature is likened to a light we were given as we enter existence, with which we are supposed to live in the domain of the Word of God. Our first parents failed to walk by the rational light, and each of us also fails, thereby reinforcing their failure by propagating darkness through our daily choices and actions. This is why the world dwells in darkness, which covers the peoples.

By sending his Only Begotten Son in human nature, God our Father has caused his light to shine again and brighter in our region of darkness. As Isaiah prophesied in the passage we read yesterday, the wealth of the nations shall flow to Jerusalem. This Jerusalem is founded on the humanity of our Lord. By his life and teaching, all men and women of good will seek out his dwelling and will desire to belong to his company. These people of goodwill, who desire to know the truth and walk in the light of God’s word, are the chosen ones of God, the children of Abraham from all nations. Thus, when Jesus Christ settled in Galilee, the Evangelist recognised this as in fulfilment of the scriptures. “In this way the prophecy of Isaiah was to be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali! Way of the sea on the far side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations! The people who lived in darkness has seen a great light; on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light has dawned.” The incarnation of the Eternal Word of God is the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is being built from all peoples and tribes of the world. The appearance of the Magi at his birth already signified this, as we celebrated yesterday. The life and teaching of our Lord are presented in this light by the Gospels. He called people of all nations who dwelt in Galilee to repentance. “From that moment, Jesus began his preaching with the message, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’”

The Psalmist upholds the right of the Son of Man to claim the world as his own by expressing the oath of the Father to give the world to the Son as his inheritance. “The Lord said to me: ‘You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day. Ask and I shall bequeath you the nations, put the ends of the earth in your possession.’” This right belongs to the Son of Man in his bodily and mystical form. The right to claim the world for God the Father also belongs to us who profess faith in the Son of Man and have become one with him in baptism. We exercise this right well if we live true to our baptismal consecration and keep his commandment. “Whatever we ask God, we shall receive, because we keep his commandments and live the kind of life that he wants. His commandments are these: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we love one another as he told us to.” Entrusted with this authority, we preoccupy ourselves with the same commitment he had during his days on earth, namely, the preaching of the Gospel for the conversion of sinners to God. It is for this important commitment that he gave us the Holy Spirit. Being committed to the same mission he had on earth authenticates our new life as an extension of his. The counterfeit disciples are not interested in the conversion of souls to God for which he shed his blood, but for their personal gains. “You can tell the spirits that come from God by this: every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus the Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” Let us share in the mandate of the Master, to share his glory.

Let us pray: O God, whose eternal Word adorns the face of the heavens yet accepted from the Virgin Mary the frailty of our flesh, grant, we pray, that he who appeared among us as the splendour of truth may go forth in the fullness of power for the redemption of the world. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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