mass, year-end reflection with the RMI 1 dec. 28

Christmas is essentially a celebration of the light. In fact if you are observant the collect or the opening prayer at midnight mass says: “O God, who have made this most sacred night radiant with the splendor of the true light, grant, we pray, that we, who have known the mysteries of his light on earth, may also delight in his gladness in heaven.” Period.  It never mentions the angels, the stars, the shepherds, the crib, the swaddling clothes or the animals.  Instead it speaks of the light, of God making the sacred night radiant.  IT refers to Jesus as the light.

Originally Christmas is a pagan feast to celebrate dies natalis solis invicti, the birthday of the unconquerable sun.  This feast is related with the changing of seasons.  The sun starting September 21 is slowly swallowed up by darkness.  The night grows longer and the day grows shorter.  Little by little darkness wins over the light, the sun is slowly extinguished as it were, and it seems that it could never again recover.  December 24 back then was the darkest night of the year, the longest night.  Then when it seems that all hope is gone for the sun it rises again beginning December 25 with renewed vigor.  This is dies natalis solis invicti – the birthday of the unconquerable sun.  Slowly starting this date the day becomes longer and the night becomes shorter again.  Little by little darkness is conquered.  Little by little light begins to conquer the night.  Day in and day out the sun becomes stronger and stronger and the darkness recedes more and more to the background.  Then on the first full moon after March 21, the earth will be saturated with light – the light from the sun and the light from the moon so that there is not a single time when darkness would totally envelope the world.  This is the zenith of Christian feast and this too would become the zenith of Christian life in Easter when Christ would have conquered death.  The unconquerable Sun will be victorious.  In the book of the prophet Micah, the messiah, Jesus, would be referred to as the Sun of Justice.  His birth is December 25 in the winter solstice reaching its zenith on the full moon of Easter after the spring Equinox.

This is a familiar story to Christians attending the ceremonies and rituals of the liturgy beginning with Christmas until Easter.  The winter solstice, the spring equinox, the full moon of Spring do not just speak about the earth in relation to other celestial bodies, but it also reflects the life of our spirits in relation to Jesus, in relation to God.  Just as the sun and the moon interacts on the earth in order to give it their light and thus make it productive o also the Sun of Justice Jesus born for us, suffered and died for us, rose again for us is the light that gives us life.

Reading through the letters of John we can see that he interweaves the truths of our faith and it moral implications to our life.  John wants us to live our lives consistent to what we believe in.  So let us go through John, our first reading today and see what he is teaching us.

First.  God is light because he reveals himself to us in Jesus.  In the bible when God reveals himself there is always the presence of light.  God reveals himself to Moses in a burning bush.  God makes known to his people that he is a God who accompanies them by showing himself as the pillar of cloud in the daytime and a pillar of fire in the night. At Pentecost he came as tongues of fire that rested on each of the apostle and on the Blessed Mother.

With light everything becomes clear.  God is no longer a shadow, God is no longer an alien concept.  God is light and we know who God is because Jesus, the light, revealed him to us.  So let us stop making our own concepts, our own image of who God is, because he has revealed himself to us in Jesus. 

John starts with this premise – do you know who God is, who is God for you, what is your image of God?  We can never proceed to know what God wants of us when we are not yet cleared as to who God is for us.

Second, Then John makes an interesting observation: “But if we walk in light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of his Son cleanses us from all sin.” One might expect him to say that, if we walk in the light, we will have fellowship with Jesus – but no, we have fellowship with one another.

And that, of course, is a central theme of this Letter. There can be no union with Christ, if we do not have union with each other. In fact, it is through union with brothers and sisters, that we form our union with Christ. There is no other way. 

To affirm then that we are walking in the light it is important to consider and even examine our relationship with each other in the community.   Many times our relationship in the community reveals our inner disposition, our interior life.  Remember, the light reveals not just God but also ourselves, how we fair in our relationship with one another.  So it is not just a question of who God is for me.  But it is also a question of who am I, how am I in my relationship with others.  Self-concept always affects and influences our relationship with the people around us.

Third, John wrote, but if we say, “We are without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”  John said this because there were Christians who thought that since they are saved they can no longer commit sin, they are already marked for heaven.  This is not just true to some people in John’s time.  It is also true to us.  Many times we have lost the sense of sin.  We no longer go to confession as often as we had in the past.  Pope St. John Paul II commenting on this passage from the letter of John said, “Deceived by the loss of the sense of sin, and at times by an illusion of sinlessness which is not at all Christian, the people of today also need to listen again to St John’s admonition, as addressed to each one of them personally: ‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’, and indeed ‘the whole world is in the power of the evil one.’”

It is important that an interior disposition is created in us that we should humbly admit that he is a sinner; and St Augustine explains: “If you confess yourself to be a sinner, the truth is in you: the truth is light. Your life does not yet shine as brightly as it might, because there are sins in you; but now you are beginning to be enlightened, because you confess your iniquities.” 

Let us have a look on our 3 points today: First, God is light – who is God for you.  Is he the same God whom Jesus reveals to us? We can never proceed to know what God wants of us when we are not yet cleared as to who God is for us.

Second our relationship with others in the community reveals our interior life.  What does your relationship with others reveal about you, about your concept of God, about your concept of self?

And third, humble disposition is always an important attitude in the journey.  Without this humble attitude that can admit sinfulness and weakness, there can be no growth in the light.