God Is Light

On July 13, 1977, a lightning strike at a power station triggered a series of equipment failures that would eventually put most of New York City in darkness. Anger and frustration over what were already difficult times for the city exploded into hours of looting. During the night and into the next day, rioters gutted over 1,600 stores and started over 1,000 fires. By the time the violence ended, 550 police officers had been injured, and 4,500 offenders arrested. The demons of darkness that humankind has feared from ancient times had seemingly roared into life.

 In the imagination, darkness looms as the realm of chaos and death, while wherever light rules, there is peace and prosperity.

In Scripture, God is the bright light that leads to and is the goal of creation. This is the theme of Sunday’s Lectionary texts. Psalm 27 begins, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?” Isaiah describes “the people who walked in darkness,” those living in the region of Galilee, oppressed by Assyria after defeat in a 735-732 BC war. Now, he says, their situation has changed, since they “have seen a great light,” probably the birth or coronation of a new king in Judah, whom he hoped would liberate the northern lands.

 Hundreds of years later, Matthew sees the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy when Jesus begins his public ministry in towns in Galilee. Jesus is the true light who calls all people to turn to God in this special time during which Jesus brings God’s saving power into world.

It is in the Gospel of John that Jesus refers to himself as “the light of the world.” He is in Jerusalem for the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, a celebration that included the lighting of four great Menorahs (lamp stands) in the Temple area. They were said to illuminate all Jerusalem. While his hearers wonder at this light, Jesus says,’ “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8;12). This becomes part of a long dispute with the religious leaders over who Jesus is. The debate ends badly with his opponents taking up stones to throw at him, but Jesus eludes them.

There are other incidents with the same theme surrounding Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world. He forgives the woman taken in adultery – “Go and from now on do not sin any more” – shining into the world the light of God’s forgiveness (John 8:2-11). He gives sight to a man born blind “so that those who do not see might see” (John 9). But this also leaves the possibility that those who do not believe can choose to remain in the darkness.

The thing about darkness, whether literal or figurative, is that we don’t always know when we’re in it. While we sometimes see the darkness in our own lives, our failures and our problems, at other times we need someone else to point it out to us. Seeing the darkness in the world is easier: wars, persecution, disease, prejudice, oppression of “the other,” divisiveness. Yet in all of this, God is Light, shining through Jesus and his Church (even though its light may sometimes be dimmed by its sinfulness), guiding us on the way to a recreated universe. Even now, we look to the New Jerusalem, the city that “had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light and its lamp was the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light . . .” (Rev 21:23-24)

Bishop Emil Wcela

Next Sunday begins the First Sunday in Lent. Here are a few bits of information you may find useful.

Helpful Definitions

 FAST: Eating less food than normal (does not necessarily mean no food)

· What you can eat: One normal, full-sized meal, and two smaller meals which if combined would not exceed one full meal.

· Why: “Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.” – Pope Benedict XVI

 ABSTINENCE : Do not eat meat.

· What you can eat: fish and seafood

· Why: “Catholic peoples from time immemorial have set apart Friday for special penitential observance by which they gladly suffer with Christ that they may one day be glorified with Him. This is the heart of the tradition of abstinence from meat on Friday where that tradition has been observed in the holy Catholic Church.” – USCCB

 ALMSGIVING: Material generosity to the less fortunate.

· What you can give: money, goods, acts of charity

· Why: Almsgiving “represents a specific way to assist those in need and, at the same time, an exercise in self-denial to free us from attachment to worldly goods…Almsgiving helps us to overcome this constant temptation, teaching us to respond to our neighbor’s needs and to share with others whatever we possess through divine goodness.” – Pope Benedict XVI

Article provided by the Catholic Company. This article has been updated and was originally published in February 2014.© The Catholic Company. All rights reserved.

Shared Lenten Penance Service

March 24 at 7:00 pm

A Lenten Penance Service will be held on Tuesday March 24 at 7:00 pm at Our Lady of Loretto Church. You are invited to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation – a sign of God’s merciful and loving forgiveness. We encourage you to take this opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation in preparation for Easter.

We’ll conclude our look at how the Church uses the Scriptures at Mass.

The Responsorial Psalm: The psalm is meant to be our response to the Word proclaimed. The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible containing God’s words that we can make our own in every human circumstance: in joy, sorrow, love, grief, comfort, pain, security, or rest. When we pray the psalms we pray the same words Jesus used to pray to the Father. We praise God in the psalms and hear Jesus’ voice echo in ours and ours in his (St. Augustine).

The Second Reading: As the First Readings and Gospels show us some aspect of Jesus revealed, the letters of the New Testament show us different aspects of how Jesus works in the Church. The life of the Church in New Testament times was far from simple; Paul, Peter, James, John, and many others had their work cut out for them! We read in Paul’s letters of the many different matters of faith (like the mystery of the crucifixion in today’s reading from 1 Corinthians 2) the early Church was trying to comprehend under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Hearing the letters should increase faith, hope, and love, and the fruits of the Spirit, in our Church today.

This is the Church’s plan for reading the Scriptures every Sunday. You’ll hear a good amount of the Bible at Mass, but not all of it. It is up to every Catholic, every family and parish, to continually set aside time to hear and read the Scriptures, but most importantly to pray with them. God is speaking to you. His voice is not so unrecognizable, nor his message so far off. “For this command which I am giving you today is not too wondrous or remote for you… No, it is something very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it” (Deuteronomy 30:11, 14).

Written by Reverend Brian Meldrum

Saint Valentine

   St. Valentine was a widely recognized third-century Roman saint, commemorated in Christianity on February 14. St. Valentine was a bishop who ministered to Christians who were persecuted. Since the High Middle Ages, his feast day has been associated with a tradition of courtly love.