Scripture Reflection for Wednesday, April 28, 2021 Readings: Acts 12:24-13:5; Psalm 67; John 12:44-50
“I have come as light to the world so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.”
From the very beginning of the Gospel of John, Jesus is presented as light. This Gospel often compares light and darkness. Light is one of the signs in John’s Gospel of Jesus, the Light that has come into the World. Today’s Gospel reading is no different.
Now, we have to be honest: in today’s world there is some light. The world is not totally in darkness. We are not going to hell in a handbasket. We often see glimmers of light. Our very presence at the Eucharist tells us that there is light in this world: it is Jesus. When we see goodness, when we do good to one another, that is light shining on our path.
But it is also true that our world, the secular world in which we live, is looking at light through a different lens, call it a cataract if you want , through which we experience a blurred vision. Like the Pharisees, we can also say to Jesus: We are not blind, are we? [Jn. 9: 40].
This blurred vision is the only vision many people know: they have grown up with it, gotten used to it, comfortable with it. How often we say: “But that’s the way it is!” And so, we can become dulled to another kind of reality. It is not our fault in a way: it’s like an addiction. It’s not a matter of bad will, just that we have grown used to the darkness, and, at some point, unable even to recognize the darkness. That happens when we lose our ability to think for ourselves, simply following the crowd, unable to be reflective about our life experiences. This is discernment, looking at events through the eyes of faith, in the light of the Gospel.
From the cross Jesus said: “they do not know what they are doing”. But it is in that same cross that we are baptized and come to share in Jesus’ mission to be light, precisely by the way we live. We need to pray for light: for ourselves and for others, for our leaders, for the world.