Light vs. Darkness

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

With the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, we are more aware than ever of the fact that the dark hours of the day are diminishing and the daylight hours are increasing. We still have another three months wherein the daylight hours will grow longer before we begin that slow journey back to darkness. For those of us who live in the northern hemisphere, this coincidence of longer days during the time of Lent complements the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent in which we are asked to plumb the darkness to ascertain whether we are continuing on our Lenten journey to the Easter light.

Darkness and I don't get along well. Maintaining a sense of balance or equilibrium is a function of three different parts of our bodies: the inner ear, our eyes and our joints. The body can accommodate itself to the loss of one of those balance organs, but it cannot do without two of them. Surgery to remove my right inner ear forced me to learn to cope with just my eyes and my joints. When the light fails and I cannot see, I cannot maintain my balance and find myself on the floor or the ground. Now that my arthritis is claiming some of my joints, I have known incidents of falling. So I depend upon the light.

My physical situation is also true or our spiritual lives. We need the light to keep from falling. Unfortunately, we are sometimes lured away from the light of Jesus by the bright lights of temptation. "There are none so blind as those who will not see."

Today' Scriptures ask us to join with the catechumens in seeking out where sin lives in our lives and expose it to the light.