Hours in a Day
Fifth Sunday of Lent
John 11:1-45
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032226.cfm
This is a long gospel reading and there is a lot that can be unpacked about it. The passage I am focusing on in this reflection is John 11:9-10:
“Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
Jesus said these words when the disciples questioned him wanting to go back to the area where people wanted to stone him. We are not our greatest and our weakest moments all the time. We can get angry and lose our temper. We can become sad and have breakdowns. We can be compassionate and critical and judgmental. There are a lot of hours within a day. In the story, Jesus uses this to show that those who want to stone him, aren’t just existing for the moment to stone Jesus. It may have been a desire for them when they were with Jesus last, but that doesn’t mean that’s how they are all the time.
We say that we are sinners because we’ve sinned, but we’re not sinning 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year. There is both light and darkness in a 24 hour period, and as the year cycles the amount of light and dark can vary depending on what season we are in. If we do this for sin, why don’t we do this for the times we are righteous? Why don’t we do this when we examine and talk about others? We have a propensity to focus on the darkness. This focus may be for good reason as it is a mechanism to protect ourselves as the disciples were wanting to protect Jesus in today’s gospel.
Our focus on the darkness can get the better of us. And it does get the better parts of us. It often impedes us from doing the right thing. It can also drive us to doing the wrong things. In presuming we are evil or bad, we are more likely to continuously reproduce it. If we focus on it in others, it can do the same for them. We can repeat the mantra to ourselves that we are a bad person. Even in mass we say the Confiteor: “I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.” Confession serves a purpose, but it isn’t all sin or all about sin. We all still have moments in the light.
To truly fight darkness isn’t about getting rid of the darkness, but in increasing the light. Darkness is only destroyed by increasing the light. To focus on the darkness can cause us to lose sight of the light. We need to make space for the light, to make space to see light in ourselves and in others. It takes a lot to lose all the light.
In many of the gospels, Jesus shows people their light when the world only showed them their darkness. In seeing that their light was recognized and seen, they were transformed. Yes we are sinners who have sinned, but we are also righteous people who have done righteous acts. God makes space for us, so let us make space for God.
