Dispelling the Darkness
Thursday of the First Week in Lent
Matthew 7:7-12
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022626.cfm
In writing these reflections, I often struggle with the concept of evil. Most of Jesus’s message can be argued against by recognizing that there’s evil in in the world. Because there is evil, we don’t always answer when someone knocks. We don’t always give when someone asks. We do reveal when others seek. Evil give us a “but” that stops us from truly picking up our cross and following the call.
Jesus lived in oneness with God and didn’t let evil have power over him. He did not live in fear and recognized and testified to there being a better way of existing. We eventually could live in a world free of fear if we truly lived like God, where all of us live in service to one another. Jesus speaks of such a world in today’s gospel by portraying what God is. God is the one who gives when we ask, who reveals to us when we seek, who opens the door when we knock. Jesus calls out that we do the same for the ones we love and for those we’re put in the care of. We have the capacity to live in love with one another. It’s part of God’s imprint on us, but with our limits, it is limited. Fear, shame, and their causes active and alive in the world impede us from fully living it out. The kingdom of God requires all of us for it to truly work.
Jesus did not give into evil in the world. He did not fight evil with evil or retaliate against it. In Matthew 5:39, Jesus says, “But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well." It’s a challenge for most of us to read this gospel because we all have a need for safety and security. Jesus chose not to live with such safety and security, often confronted it, and was imprisoned and crucified without personal resistance.
In the last phrase of today’s gospel, Jesus says, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.” When we ask, we want an answer or we want what we asked for. When we knock, we anticipate and want the door to be opened. When we seek, we want to find. God is calling us to act one and the same.
In the gospel of John, there is a lot of comparison of Jesus and God to light. When you shine a spotlight on an object, some darkness is removed, but it also strongly reveals the darkness behind it. For light to fully envelop darkness, it takes light coming from all directions; from one source it can be revealing, but from all sources it becomes overpowering. Light reveals the darkness, but it’s quite another task to fully dispel. It takes a lot of light and a lot of angles.
Jesus saw that the kingdom of God was already alive in the world as it was part of the initial design where he was the spoken word that brought it into being. Instead of reveling in this creation, we chose to hate and to hurt. We grew fear and shame in ourselves and in others. We turned our back on that perfection and produced generations upon generations pushing away that kingdom. But, God has remained alive and active in this world. God has worked through those who strive for the same; those who participate in the divine call to live in love with God, their fellow human beings, and all of creation. Jesus was not looking to be worshipped or idolized, he was looking to be followed. He was calling us to emulate the creator: To live fully to the uniqueness of our creation, in the image of God, complete with one another in love. May we have the courage to live as Jesus did, to reflect more light into the world, doing our part to reveal the kingdom through dispelling of darkness.
