SEASON OF LIGHT
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​In the midst of the darkest stretch of the year, holiday lights are a bright spot that remind us of the bright hope to which the natal star of the Christ Child pointed those 2000 winters ago. St. John describes Christ’s entry into our world this way: “The true light that gives light to all men was coming into the world” (Jn 1:9). It’s interesting how John begins his Gospel with a striking resemblance to the book of Genesis, “In the beginning…God…” There, in Genesis, God spoke into the darkness and said, “Let there be light” (Ge 1:3). In a deliberate parallel, St. John writes how Christ, the light of the world, comes into our darkness to overcome it. This same Christ then calls us out of darkness, Peter adds, “into His marvelous light” (1 Pt 2:9). The Epiphany season emphasizes this portrait of Christ, the True Light, that grows clearer and brighter, as miracle after recorded miracle further illuminates His true nature as the God-man who rescues us from the darkness that seeks to devour us from outside and from within. This illumination, or epiphany, of the true identity of Jesus Christ reaches its zenith in the blinding light of divine glory which He bursts forth on the Mount of Transfiguration. Today, it is our turn to “come all ye faithful” into the light of Christ and invite others to “come and see” this same Savior born to us in the life and light of His Church of which He is its living Head and Lord. It is our turn to let our own God-given light shine, even as, today, God’s eternal Word guides us, as “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (Ps 119:105). God grant that your own understanding of Christ and His light that you reflect grow stronger this year and more and more as His Return draws near.

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