7 June 2016
Tuesday of the 10th Week of Ordinary Time
Without light, the world can be a scary place. Just a few weeks ago, I was driving to a national park in California, and needed to take some fairly rural roads to get there–no streetlights or anything. It was a pleasant drive during the day, but I knew that the drive back at night would be less pleasant. Sure enough, coming back I needed my high-beams on to navigate the pitch-black roads which were constantly winding, and I was driving with extra caution since I didn’t know where exactly the curves and turns were. Without the light, I couldn’t quite see the road as it was.
Light helps us see things as they are. If we are the light of the world as Jesus tells us today, it is because we help others see the world as it is. We can’t do that if we don’t really know the world for what it is ourselves–something created to glorify God, something which we must care for as stewards, something that will end. It is a good thing, but not the highest good–that would be God. Without keeping our focus on God, we might forget the truth about the world. Knowing God in prayer, and knowing how the world relates to God, we can be that light of the world, and show others the world for what it is. But without our light, the world can be a scary place.