Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle A
01/22/2020
January 29, 2020
Are you in darkness?
Are you waiting for the light?
Or have you given up?
Isaiah speaks to a people in the 8th Century B.C. who were a minority among the Assyrians. They were unable to practice their faith and many had lost their faith.
This prophet says that a people who walk in darkness will see a great light. There is hope for the future.
Each of us, can at times, be like the people in this first reading. Things just don't go as we planned. We seem to be in darkness. We even give up. But I think the reading encourages us to understand we will come into a great light.
I am always amazed that after the darkness, the events in my life that seem so difficult, have passed; I can look back on them and there seems to be a sort of light or understanding that gives me an understanding of what I have learned about myself. In that difficult situation did I trust that these words of Isaiah are fulfilled? That no matter what, we no longer walk in darkness.
Christ the light has appeared and offers each of us eternal life.
What can hurt us?
With Christ there is no darkness, only eternal life.
In the second reading Paul speaks to a community that is in crisis following different leaders. "I am for Paul, I am for Apollos, etc. Paul says come into the light and that is Christ. The one who makes the light of Christ appears is not the one to hang on to, but only on Christ who brings the light, not the messenger. The light brings unity not division.
Christ brings unity.
The gospel certainly calls us into the light.
Are we willing to look at our spiritual self honestly and come into the light.
That is where the kingdom of God is. But how difficult that can be.
We can easily think I don't sin, well not very big.
We really don't want to look at ourselves.
But when we have the courage and the grace to look at our failures, our sins, we are in the light and very close to the kingdom of God.
In every daily situation we are called, as were James and John, to leave everything, our plans, our thinking I am right and know best, our way of doing things, our giving of ourselves only when it it convenient, etc. and to follow the Lord, which amazingly will bring us in the light about our spiritual selves.
When the Lord passes today, as He will everyday, will you follow Him?
Audio of the Gospel and my Homily given at St. Angela Merici when I first Retired
Click here for audio of my homily