Bringing Light to Our Darkness

Homily for Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Though we might not recognize it immediately, there was always some sort of barrier between God and God’s people. The veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the altar of incense is a symbol of the chasm that existed between them. The entire Temple was built to separate people – Gentiles from Jews, women from men, and men from priests. Each group had its own courtyard. The Letter to the Hebrews begins by noting that God spoke to the Israelites in partial and various ways. Direct access to God had been lost by Adam and Eve.

However, Jesus came to break down the barriers as St. Paul points out in his Letter to the Galatians: “For Christ is our peace, he who made both (Jew and Gentile) one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh…” As we hear in today’s passage from the Letter to the Hebrews: “we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh…” By taking on our flesh through the Incarnation, no barrier exists between us and God.

As I have said before, the Incarnation is not an event that took place millennia ago. It still continues today. Again, the Letter to the Hebrews makes this clear when it tells us that “We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works… we must encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

Just as Jesus loved his own until the end, we must love one another. Through our acts of love, we make Jesus present in our midst; we awaken our minds to the mystery of the Incarnation. As the Gospel text  for today reminds us, we must take the light of Christ which we received through Baptism and let it illuminate our world. If we fail to share that light, we will ultimately lose it in our own lives.