One of God’s great gifts to us is light. It was one of His first creations and
we would be lost without it. We
can see the gift of light in a variety of ways. Imagine a beautiful sunrise (not that I’ve seen many of
these), or sunset. Picture the
child whose nightlight scares away the monsters. Or consider on the celebration of the Easter Vigil in which
the Paschal candle is processed in through the dark and then everyone’s candles
are lit.
Moses
face was actually illumined after speaking with God. He radiated God’s love so much so the Hebrews had him wear a
veil. We, too, are called to shine
in the same way.
In
this Year of Faith, Pope Francis has given us his first encyclical: Lumen Fidei—Light of Faith. Now some of you gave me homework
assignments while I was a student here and others even gave my Dad homework at
the old Cathedral. I would ask you
to do a homework assignment: read Lumen
Fidei. I have been working
through this slowly and it is nothing short of enlightening. In this work, Francis declares: “The
light of Christ shines, as in a mirror, upon the face of Christians…”
One
way people can perceive this light in us is if we exude his joy. In one of his homilies to the young
people at World Youth Day our Holy Father said, “Dear friends, if we walk in
hope, allowing ourselves to be surprised by the new wine which Jesus offers us,
we have joy in our hearts and we cannot fail to be witnesses of this joy. Christians are joyful, they are never
gloomy. God is at our side…Christians
cannot be pessimists!”
Are
you a joyful person? Does your joy
radiate like light to others? My
prayer for you and your religious community this day is that the light of your
faith may shine. May it shine
through the joyful way you approach your vocation and serve God and neighbor.
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