Archive for month: February, 2020

The first coming of Jesus Christ was a dawning whose brightness only grows until Christ comes again (2 Peter 1:16-19). This dawning brightness grows in the sense that the message of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ has gone beyond Galilee and Judea unto the ends of the earth, including where you are. This dawning brightness also grows in the sense that God’s love grows in our hearts. Some 1,300 years ago St. Bede said that in comparison with the ungodly, we are the very daylight itself.

That is a heavy responsibility, but take heart and have confidence: The Holy Spirit works through your life and makes you a light to others! Do not believe the lie that God cannot work through you! God does work through you the Holy Spirit makes you an instrument of divine love and compassion in the way of Jesus Christ. May we be persistent in sharing God’s love and compassion with others. May we grow in God’s grace and love.

Jesus says that using words to put someone down or insult them puts the person speaking the insulting words in danger of judgment from God (Matthew 5:21-22). Although there are legitimate reasons to get angry, there is no legitimate reason to get mean and ugly when we are angry. Jesus is fairly serious about deliberately insulting another person or a group of people.

Targeting a person or a group of people with words designed to denigrate has no place in the Christian faith. We must speak up lest we be caught up in such targeting of others and we may find ourselves to be the targets. Jesus likens name-calling meant to denigrate to murder. When someone is put down and insulted, it is an attempt to destroy that person
and murder their personhood. May we not forget that each person is created in the Image of God. May we not forget that all groups and tribes of people are in the image of God.

To be salt and light is who we are by God’s grace, and that grace flows from us to others. Although we may have to grit our teeth sharing grace, I hope we do good
as a response God’s grace bestowed upon us . Like salt, we may be invisible to the world at large but collectively we have a powerful influence that glorifies not ourselves, but our heavenly Father.

We, the followers of Christ, have become beacons of light and hope in the midst of a world full of strife and hatred. We do not become beacons of light by tooting own horns. Rather, by our quiet humble presence we have become lights who shine God’s love and compassion in the darkness around us (Matthew 5:13-16).