The Light of Christ Surrounds Us

I never pay much attention to the candles placed near the ambo in our Choir Chapel at Mount St. Scholastica, except when I’m acolyte and it’s my responsibility to light them. However, a couple of weeks ago when our access to electricity was disrupted and we gathered for Morning Prayer in semi darkness, the candles drew my eye with their soft, steady luminescence. Their light had always been with us, but I didn’t notice it until we faced a time of darkness.

Similarly, the light of Christ is always with us, but we tend to overlook our reliance on it until we are overcome with darkness. The Christ light is always there; what changes is our recognition of it. That is why we are called to praise God — not because God needs or desires our praise, but because we need to remind ourselves of God’s unwavering goodness, steadfastness, and presence.

As Christians, we are called to reflect God’s light, as Jesus did. We are living in a time of increasing darkness, when people need to be reminded of God’s tenets (“Love one another as I have loved you”), God’s inclusivity (“you are all one in Christ Jesus”), and God’s upside-down logic (“the first shall be last, and the last shall be first”). Thus even though we may be feeling weary and depleted by sadness, anxiety, and fear, now more than ever we need to draw on Christ’s inextinguishable light and reflect it to those in need of strength, kindness, and hope.