“Darkness cannot drive out darkness.” Fr Dean reflects on today’s readings from Mass.
Readings for Tuesday of the 10th week of ordinary time can be found here.
Martin Luther King famously said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” The symbolism of light is well used in all areas of life. Plato said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” It is, of course, an image which Jesus used often himself, when he referred to himself as The Light of the World, and the prologue to John’s gospel is washed in light.
In the gospel reading today, Jesus turns the image on us, his followers. “You are the light of the world,” he says. His teaching urges us not to cover up or conceal the light which we can give when we do good works. All that we do, however, small, can bring light to a dark situation. We can bring hope where there is hopelessness, bring love where there is hate. As another old saying goes, “It’s better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.”
At times, we may underestimate the good that we are able to achieve. We may even, at times, doubt or own sense of worth and value. Some people have the rather negative quality of being able to gaslight others. They undermine them, control them, make them doubt their own worth. Jesus does no such thing. Jesus does no such thing. He encourages us to shine as beacons in the world. To use the words of another bright beacon of the church, St Francis, we pray:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Mass today is in St Mary’s at 630pm
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