Living in the Light

“Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.”

Isaiah 58:8

The Lord tells us through Isaiah that if we care for those around us — “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own” (Isaiah 58:7) — then our light shall shine brightly and every infirmity be healed and God will be with us. This seems to foreshadow the corporal works of mercy. So, do we do the things the Lord asks of us? Do we feed the hungry, help the poor, welcome to stranger, embrace the unwanted, and care for one another? Sounds so simple, but not always easy to do because of sin. Sometimes our pride and our human prejudices, however subliminal, get in the way and leads us to selfishness. When we allow that to dictate how we live our lives, the light that we have within us becomes dimmed by that metaphorical bushel basket, hiding Christ from others.

When we allow the love of Christ to take root in our hearts, those works will come naturally to us and we will do them selflessly with joy. However, there may be time when we do good works but the light we shine forth is not the true Light, but rather our own light. We must take caution. We must remember that it is Christ whom we must shine forth, not ourselves. We must not make the good works about US but rather about Christ and those for whom we do those good works.

To live in the Light, we must know who the Source of this Light is; we must come to know Christ. The Baltimore Catechism tells us that God created us to know, love, and serve God in this life and to be happy with Him in the next. Knowing, loving, and serving. To serve someone we must love them. To love them we must know them. If we do not truly know the Lord and not simply know about Him, we will not genuinely love Him, let alone serve Him and His people. So, if we really want this “light to break forth like the dawn” and have the Lord as our light and our salvation, then we must get to know Him. Let us take some time everyday to get to know the Lord and to grow deeper in relationship with Him so that we might come to know Him, love Him, and serve Him, and be moved to love our neighbors so that we might live in the Light of Christ in this life and allow that Light to lead us to eternal life.

The Lowly Remnant

“But I will leave as a remnant in your midst
a people humble and lowly,
who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD:
the remnant of Israel.”

Zephaniah 3:12-13

What comes to mind when you hear the word “remnant” or “lowly”? Perhaps poor people or “leftovers” or those are not in the limelight. What the world sees as important or valuable might be different from what God sees as important or valuable. Rather, sometimes the world distracts us from the true importance of things with the glamour and attractiveness of what it has to offer, knowing that its “importance” is really superficial and temporary. When the Israelites went into exile, many of them turned away from God, falling again and again into idolatry. The prophets kept reminding them of God’s of love and His promises, and how He’s been faithful throughout the generations, but they did not seem to care. Except for a few. Except for the lowly and humble faithful remnant.

We are reminded that, despite the large number of Israelites who turned their backs on God, there remained some who never forgot the Lord. That even when everyone seemed to have “gone with the flow” or “jumped on the bandwagon,” there were some who refused to follow something they knew was not true. It is so easy to just follow the crowd, to blend in, to be popular, to be relevant. But, that is not the way of the Lord. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, has always lived a countercultural life. He was born into a culture of death — literally, where Herod sought to slaughter Him, when He Himself was Life itself. He proclaimed liberty when everyone was seemingly content with their unsuspecting bondage to sin and the world. He preached repentance when those around Him felt righteous in their own right, blinded by their own pride. He granted forgiveness when everyone sought revenge and persecution. Jesus was a countercultural figure because He didn’t belong to the world. Brothers and sisters, neither do we. We belong to God, we belong to heaven.

We are called to be a light in this world of darkness, to be salt for an earth that has been inundated with seasoning that strives to cover up its natural essence and flavor. Light dispels darkness. Salt brings out the flavor that lies within. We are called to remind one another of who we really are — God’s beloved sons and daughters. This world tries so hard to trick us into believing that we need to cover up who we are and put on a mask and façade so that we might be accepted and “loved.” We oftentimes fall into this trap. We love the glory and the honor and the accolades. You see there is no problem with receiving compliments and accolades, but when we begin to allow those things to define us, we begin to move away from the inherent dignity that we have, the identity we have in Christ. We become the Israelites who turned their backs on God and bowed down to the flashy idols. We have left the flock of Christ. We have removed ourselves from the lowly, faithful remnant of God.

To be Christian is to put in Christ. To be Christian is to be countercultural. To be Christian is be who we are and be that well. To be Christian is to put on humility. To be Christian is to be faithful. To God and not to the world. Brothers and sisters, are we truly Christians? Where are we today? Do we live as beloved sons and daughters of the Father or do we allow the world to define who we are? Are we part of the faithful remnant or are we standing with the crowd who has chosen the pleasures of this world over the Lord.

Called to Be One

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say,
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.”

1 Corinthians 1:10

Unity is something that all Christians ought to pray for and help realize. Saint Paul tells the Corinthians to strive for unity because they seemed to have lost sight of what was most important. They seemed to be starting to form factions and cliques. We are not to be followers of any religious leader, priest, or bishop — we are to be followers of Christ and anyone who does not preach and lead in the name and way of Christ is really leading others to themselves. Sometimes we forget this. Sometimes we preach and teach and evangelize but we fail to remember that we ought to lead them to a personal relationship with Christ and not to our personal following. We as Christians must follow Christ and only Christ for in Him we are one.

We must remember that it is Jesus who first calls us. In the Gospel we hear Jesus calling the first Apostles. He goes to the Sea of Galilee and finds fisherman and He tells them that if they follow Him, He will make them fishers of men. They leave behind their nets and followed Him. You see, Jesus comes to us in the ordinariness of life. He comes to meet us at our places of work, at our homes, at places where we find comfort, and He calls out to us and invites us on a journey that will forever change our lives. Jesus invites us to share in the very life of God — God who is three Persons in One God.

When we are baptized, we receive the gift of sanctifying grace, which is a share in God’s life, a share in that Divine Community of Love, the gift that allows us to dare share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled Himself to share in our frail humanity. So we must remember that we who are baptized are to be one just as God is One — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus comes to us today and calls us, inviting us to be His fishermen who will cast our nets into the depths of society — to the poor, the marginalized, the forgotten, the outcast — and to share with all the Good News of His love and mercy. Let us pray to God to increase within us the desire to be one and to grant us the courage to respond generously to His call.