Shine Out As The Light (Ephesians 5:8-14)


From the creation narrative in the book of Genesis and throughout the various passages of the scripture, the issue of light has always been prominent. This was so glarring when Jesus in Matthew 5:14-16 reminded His disciples that they are the light of the world and should let their light shine out before all people of the earth. In our reading of this day St. Paul reminds us of the same injunction of Christ. We are a new creation, old things and darkness of our past has passed away, we have become light and as such we must shine out as the Lord intends for us to do. To shine out as the Light means to radiate and dazzle the glory of the Lord to the whole earth. It means to live a life worthy of a child of God. It also means to represent Jesus in the world in the manner worthy of our calling as His disciples.

To shine out and live as children of the Light is to bear fruits of light and fruits of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. This is our call, to shine out our light so that darkness will disappear. We are going to shine out the good qualities, gifts and potentials with which the Lord has blessed us. Christ is light and in Him there is no darkness, so we too must radiate God's light everywhere because we belong to Him. Darkness and the devil who is the prince of darkness is trying everything possible to overcome our world. The darkness of envy, hatred, bitterness and jealousy which sometimes lead to murder. The darkness of gossip which leads to character assassination. The darkness of terrorism, violence, extremism and killing of the innocent. The darkness of armed robbery and kidnapping. The darkness of sexual immorality. The darkness of  injustice and corruption. The darkness of indifference to the needs of the poor around us. The darkness of incessant excuses when we are required to do our work well and we fail because of our unseriousness and indiscipline.

 All these and more are the things that are wounding our world and Jesus expects us to shine out our light of goodness, mercy, empathic humanity, willingness to help the needy and the poor and readiness to do God's will at all times and in all places. When we shine out our light, we dispel the darkness of our world. Let us look inwardly and identify the good side of our lives that we need to shine out and the dark side we need to allow the light reach so that we can become truly like Jesus who was, who is and who will continue to be the light of the world. Let your light shine and let the whole world see your good works and glorify God. Never let any oppotunity of shining out your light as a child of God pass you by. God is light and He gives us the grace to shine out. Just let Him lead you and bring out the best in you for the good of the whole humanity and to the greater glory of of His name.

Let us pray: Oh God, I am a vessel in your hand. Let your light shine through me so that the whole earth will come to know you. Give me the grace to shine out your light in me. Amen.

Popular posts from this blog

Day 33 Of Lent: Suffering For a Just Cause(Jeremiah. 20:10-13/John 10:31-42)

Image
The story of Jeremiah and Jesus in the first reading and gospel reading of this morning respectively, shows that when one is on the right track trying to do God's will that the person can pass through some moments of adversity. The Christian life is one that has a lot of crucibles that we must pass through before we reach our goal. Anyone who accepts the Christian faith and believes that it will be a cosy and smooth ride all the way must be making a big mistake. Living out our Christian lives in an authentic manner entails walking through the narrow and rough part of life and we can only survive it if we walk along with Jesus Christ who knows all the bad spots and how to avoid them. Jesus will tell his disciples that whoever will follow Him must carry a cross and the person must be ready to deny himself or herself in order to be able to follow Him welll. When one faces persecutions, trials, mob action, detraction and even being falsely accused like they did to Jesus and Jer...
Read more

Witnessing Without Fear of Persecution (Acts 5:17-26/Psalm 34/John 3:16-21)

Image
For every baptised Christian, we have a responsibility to witness for the Most Blessed Trinity in whose name we have been baptised. By virtue of our baptism we have become chosen witnesses of Jesus. In baptism we received the Holy Spirit which made us children of God; and as God's  children, we are part of a very closely knitted family that we need to stand by always. Today we read about two apostles who were not afraid to be witnesses. Being witnesses earned them imprisonment. But as we know, the work of God must go on. God is able to remove obstacles that stand on the path of the Gospel. Hence they were set free from prison by a miracle and went straight back into witnessing. We have to accept the fact that there will always be opposition to the preaching of the Gospel and persecution for those who try to witness with their lives. We have to make up our minds to be determined to be bold and not afraid. When the trials and persecutions come, we take them with a cheerful h...
Read more

Let The Resurrection Witnessing Begin (Acts 10:34,37-43/Ps.118/Col.3:1-4/Jn.20:1-9)

Image
"In those days: Peter opened his mouth and said, You know the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after Baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and he went about doing good and healing all that were possessed by the devil,  for God was with Him" Acts 10:34,37-38 Today, is the Sunday of the Resurrection and there is joy everywhere, because Jesus is risen and was not held bound by the force of the grave and death. We have been waiting for this day as we practiced our lenten observances and today Joy has taken over the atmosphere because He who was killed and buried has risen as He said He will do. we see that by the power of the resurrection the apostles became witnesses to the events about the life of Christ. They proclaimed His name to all those who were listening to them. This is simply our responsibility as we rejoice and give praise to God for letting His only begotten ...
Read more