Reflection for December 29
“The true light is already shining.” 1 John 2: 9
“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.” Luke 2:32
The readings for today blaze with light: Christ is our light, come into the world to illuminate our darkness. Beautiful! But practically speaking, what does that really mean? It may help to think about light as a metaphor. We don’t actually see light itself. But light makes it possible, for those of us with eyesight, to perceive what is in front of us. In the same way, Jesus the Christ reveals God, in whom we “live and breathe and have our being,” in us, all around us, and in each other. And just like we cannot perceive what is before our eyes, we cannot see God in each other. It’s a choice. Unfortunately, this is actually how most of us usually behave. I definitely don’t see God in you, you don’t see God in me either, and we fight. But if we choose to do so, we can look with the eyes of love upon ourselves and each other. Now I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find this pretty tough - maybe even impossible. It can be so tempting to storm off into the darkness. But then you get lost, and you don’t see God anywhere, especially not in yourself. Jesus on the cross reveals that the only path forward is forgiveness: “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” Maybe that is how we step out of the darkness ourselves. We don’t have to summon the courage to forgive on our own - we can ask God to forgive those who would do us harm. We can even ask God to forgive us, in the hope that we can forgive ourselves, because perhaps it is the hardest of all to forgive ourselves. There is even a sacrament for that - more than one. Whether or not we choose to avail ourselves of sacramental grace, let’s try to share the light in us revealing God in the world.
Pam Hardiman