COLLECT: “ALMIGHTY AND INVISIBLE GOD, WHO DISPERSED THE DARKNESS OF THIS WORLD BY THE COMING OF YOUR LIGHT, LOOK, WE PRAY, WITH SERENE COUNTENANCE UPON US, THAT WE MAY ACCLAIM WITH FITTING PRAISE THE GREATNESS OF THE NATIVITY OF YOUR ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOREVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
1Jn 2:3-11; Ps 95:1-3,5-6 and Lk 2:22-35.
The keyword in the commandments of God is ‘LOVE’. In the two commandments that Jesus gave us as a summary of the Ten Commandments that God gave to his people through Moses, LOVE is the KEY: ‘Love of God, and love of neighbour’ (Mt 22:37-40). This means, a Christian who hates and is resentful is a contradiction in terms. God, indeed, is love and anyone who dwells in love, or anyone who has love in him/her dwells or lives in God. According to John, if you dwell or live in God, then you are in the light and you are a child of light.
Jesus is being described in several scripture passages as the Light of the world. “Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a LIGHT TO REVEAL YOU TO THE NATIONS AND THE GLORY OF YOUR PEOPLE ISRAEL” (Lk 2:29-32). “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone” (Is 9:1ff).
At our baptism and confirmation, we received lit candles symbolising Jesus, the light to the nations, thereby making us children of light. There are two things we must do to constantly remain in the light of Jesus and belong to him. These are:
(1) If we do what Jesus Christ tells us to do. That is, if we believe in him and obey his commandments, love of God and love of neighbour.
(2) If we live and behave as he wants us to. That is, if our faith results in loving and good works and good behaviour. ‘Not those who say Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of God, but those who do the will of my Father’.
Satan, who is opposed to God, symbolises ‘DARKNESS’. There is nothing good about darkness (also hatred) and its activities. According to St. John, anyone who hates their brother or sister is in darkness, and they walk in complete darkness, not knowing where they are going, because the darkness has blinded their eyes (Cf. 1 Jn 2:9-11). Such a person’s lot is destruction of oneself and of one's neighbour.
The works or activities of darkness are harmful and disastrous. Hatred, envy and jealousy, division, discrimination, rivalry, betrayal, inability to forgive, retaliation and revenge, destruction of both human life and property, quarrelling and fighting, dishonesty and lies, as well as what St. Paul stated in his Letter to the Ephesians: sexual immorality or impurity or greed-worshipping of a false god (Cf. Eph 5).
Beloved, as children of God/children of light, let us cast out these works of darkness and wear the armour of light, whose effects are seen in goodness, love, uprightness and truth. It is also helpful to meditate on St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 13:4-7. Let us pray that the Lord may grant us his grace to do away with all hateful and resentful feelings, attitudes and behaviours, to meet the Lord of Light on the Day of the Judgment, which may come to any of us as a thief. Good morning, and may you be blessed by the Lord.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, MONDAY, ON THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES: ‘THE ANNUNCIATION, THE VISITATION, THE BIRTH OF JESUS, THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE AND THE FINDING OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE’. (LET US PRAY FOR HUMILITY, LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR, POVERTY IN SPIRIT, OBEDIENCE AND JOY IN FINDING JESUS) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
PRAYER: “GRANT, WE PRAY, ALMIGHTY GOD, THAT, BY THE POWER OF THESE HOLY MYSTERIES, OUR LIFE MAY BE CONSTANTLY SUSTAINED. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com.
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