Daily Mass Homily: Tuesday of Holy Week

           There is a poignant line in our Gospel that is only four words long: “And it was night.”  John frequently uses the images of light and darkness to contrast life and death, righteousness and sinfulness. 

            Jesus was betrayed by two of his apostles and friends.  Judas turned him over to the enemies for a mere sum of money.  Peter denied he knew him.  He wasn’t asked if he was a believer in Jesus, but simply knowing him.  “And it was night.”

            If you’re like me, having heard the passion story many times in your life, you may be tempted to think, “What idiots!  How could Jesus’ closest followers reject him to that degree?”  Yet we must remember that we have darkness in our own souls.  We may not deny we know Jesus, or take money to betray him, but when we lust, gossip, or judge we, too, betray Jesus—and it is night in our soul.

            Jesus, as the light of the world, wants us to step out of the darkness—our sins, failures and shortcomings—and walk into the day.  That is what Holy Week is all about.  This week I pray that you will have the courage to bring your darkness into the light as we reflect on Christ acting as the light of the world. 

            God promises through the prophet Isaiah: “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”  He calls us to be a light for the world.  But before we can be light we must give him our darkness.