REFLECTION

Gospel

Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”                                ​​Matthew 5:13-16

Reflection

A few years ago, a dear friend of mine was suffering from crippling depression.  In the course of a conversation about how it felt.  He spoke of darkness surrounding him, and then added that he felt that death “sat on his chest.” I remembered thinking at the time of the passage from Isaiah, announced at the Christmas Mass during the night: “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light, on those who dwell in the land of gloom, a light has shown.” To dwell in that light helps drive the power of death away.

If we remove oppression through laws, community behaviour, attitudes of the self-centered, attend to those who are starving for the good, whether that is food, education, beauty, clean water or whatever else the human family genuinely thirsts for, then the light will rise, and the gloom of our world will transform to midday. This pronouncement of a prophet hundreds of years before Jesus should challenge us to listen closely to Jesus’ words in the Gospel about being the light of the world.  The light comes from living in God’s presence. To be with God is to be an agent for God’s mercy in the harsh places of the world.

This does not imply that we have the will or ability to just decide to love the Trinity. We first need to allow ourselves to be loved – to know the compassion of God. Saint Paul told the Corinthians and the Church today that life and faith have to rest on the power of God. Paul sees himself as coming to preach God’s love out of his own weakness rather than great strength. Like AA and other successful recovery programs we own that we ourselves don’t have the tools to bring the light – it shines through us from God. We allow ourselves to be transparent so as not to obscure it.

But should we think that we have nothing, Jesus reminds us that we are the light of the world. If we have been called to faith and the pursuit of love for God, then we must not abandon the way. The cost of doing so is the land of gloom – the darkness of hopelessness. 

The illness of Clinical Depression is simply that, an illness. Like cancer, heart disease or other ills of the body it requires more than willing it to go away. Like all illnesses it is subject to God’s healing, and we should consistently pray for that for others and for ourselves.  For the great number of humans who experience other forms of the gloom of hopelessness, the light of God’s mercy and forgiveness might well be the light of healing. The light of compassion, after the death of a loved, one may bring an end to grief’s most insidious anguish.  The sense of boredom that pervades so much of Western Culture may be addressed by the labour of bringing the light of hope to others. Anxiety about tomorrow’s possibilities may be healed by confidence that a loving God holds us in care.

It is well for us in the Southern Hemisphere still caught in the throes of deep winter darkness to remember the light that God brings to us through the practices of unselfishness, justice, and compassion.  It is worth seeking the path of those ways given in today’s scriptures and the prayers of the Liturgy.

“Care for the needy and your light will break forth like the dawn” - Gospel antiphon of morning prayer.

Julie Leonard

Religious Education Leader/Wellbeing Leader