Weekly Reflection
Weekly Reflection
In Mattehw 5:14-19, Christ says to His disciples: “‘You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven…”
In this past Sunday’s Gospel, Christ meets a man who was blind from birth (John 9: 1-38). As He explains to His disciples that the man is not blind through his own sin, but rathe in order that “the works of God be made manifest in him” Christ exclaims: “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Here, however, Christ says much the same about His disciples, “You are the light of the world…” and that it is in seeing their good works, that other will “give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
How can the disciples, and by extension we, who are followers of Christ, be the light of the world, when Christ says that He is? When God created humans, He made them in His image and likeness, we hear this verse often, but we sometimes fail to grasp its true significance. God said: “ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ’ εἰκόνα ἡμετἐραν...” we are an εἰκόνα, an icon of God, and it is as an icon of Christ that we become “the light of the world.” We are, in a sense, like the moon, which can illuminate the night, but does so by reflecting the light of the sun. We shine forth light, but it is the light of Christ, the true light, which those with whom we interact should see.
Again in John 9:1-38, Christ says to His disciples: “We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work.” By shining forth the light of Christ, the night of the world is turned to day, and in the light of day we do God’s will, becoming a witness to the world in the way that we act. In the Lord’s Prayer, we say: “Thy will be done.” This cannot be an passive statement, a thought that it would be nice if God’s will would come to pass. We are called to be the light, to not only wish for God’s will, but do carry out God’s will. And what is this that God wishes us to do? To do as Christ did, to show mercy on our brothers and sisters, to see in them Christ of whom they are an icon as we are. It was this lack of mercy that Christ rebuked in the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23: ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”
Christ spoke of carrying out the will of God in the context of healing the blind man. We do not all have the power of healing, but we are all called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, minister to the sick and visit the imprisoned (Matthew 25: 31-46). In doing so, we show the light of God’s love both to those who receive mercy, and to those who see what it means to love another, since, to quote the musical Les Miserables: “to love another person is to see the face of God.”
