You are the Light of the World

A story is told of a man at sea who was very seasick. If there is a time when a man feels that he cannot do any work, it is then. But he heard that a man had fallen overboard. He couldn’t do much, but he laid hold of a light and held it up to the porthole. The light happened to fall on the drowning man’s hand, and a man caught him and pulled him into the lifeboat. It seemed a small thing to do to hold up the light, yet it saved the man’s life.

Jesus said in today’s Gospel lesson: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. It seems that Jesus is talking our language here. We all like to shine. We are only too willing to have people see our good works and praise us. But here is the hitch. Jesus does not say that people will praise us but our “Father who is in heaven.” Our sole business is to glorify Him and so let our light shine that others will glorify Him too.

“Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them.” These are the words of the same Lord who tells us, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Notice that Jesus is not begging or pleading with his disciples. There is nothing here about trying to become the light of the world. He merely announces a fact: “You are the light of the world.” This is what God chooses to make of us. This is how God uses our obedience to Him — to illumine the darkness of the world.

No Invisible Christians

Obviously Jesus does not mean for us to try to impress people with our piety and good works. But He is warning us that we cannot be invisible Christians. When a man becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ, he is committed to a way of life that sometimes will stick out like a sore thumb. In his attitude toward other people, in his sense of values, in the use of his money, and in a thousand other ways the Christian will be visibly different. Not because we want it that way. Not because we try to get attention. But only because God is calling us to be obedient in ways that cannot be hid. As you cannot hide a city that has been set on a hill, so there is no way that you can hide the kind of obedience that is required of a disciple of Jesus. It will shine.

High-Fidelity Christians

The need today is for high-fidelity Christians. A high-fidelity record player is one that plays back recordings through speakers which give very high fidelity to original sounds. Fidelity, or faithfulness, is a virtue greatly prized in people as well as in record players. It means faithfulness to the original, a careful and exact reproduction of the highest standard. Because we are Christians, life for us becomes a very special high fidelity project. The original is our Lord Jesus Christ. From Him we hear what He wants us to be. And through obedience, through the grace and strength He gives us in prayer and the sacraments, we reproduce the original in our lives as faithfully as possible.

In a society that is so widely and deeply unchristian, our Lord expects us to live, in the words of St. Paul, as “blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).

We are not to conform to the sinful world around us. We are called to be different, conformed to God in Christ. We are called to reflect not the mores of our culture, but the mind of Christ. We are not only businessmen, waiters, bus boys, secretaries, teachers, but children of God and heirs of His kingdom. We are in this world, yet not of this world, said Jesus. We belong to God. The Gulf Stream is in the ocean, yet it is not a part of it. It maintains its own warm temperatures even in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. It creates a climate of its own wherever it goes. St. Paul said to the Ephesians: “Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). We are called to create a “Christ” climate wherever we go.

Source: Gems from the Sunday and Feasts Gospel ~ Anthony M. Coniaris