have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
The dawn from on high breaks upon us. The star that marks his birth is just a prelude. It hints at the greater light of the world who is come. The shepherds and the Magi follow the light of the star. But even stars eventually succumb to the darkness. The star leads them to the light which even the darkness cannot overcome.
The darkness is in the world. There are evil spirits and antichrists all around us. Denying Jesus Christ come in the flesh is a reliable way to sell books. It is a perennial topic of conversation on television. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, but they "belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world and the world listens to them."
What difference does the light make in the face of darkness like this? It protects us from the darkness, not just shining on us from without, but shining forth from within us.
You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you
is greater than the one who is in the world.
We have the grace to resist the lies the world tells. We have the power to have a world view based on truth no matter how habituated we get to the lie. No matter how many credentialed voices tell us otherwise we can still believe the truth. It shines brighter than the lies. It is within us giving us strength. The very power to believe comes not from ourselves but from the light within us.
Believe what? Jesus is not merely a man, not merely a teacher, not even just a spiritual leader:
He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.
He is a healer. He is a worker of wonders. But even more than this, John the Baptist is arrested for standing in the truth of who Jesus really is: the Son of God. He is the one about whom the psalmist truly writes when he says:
The LORD said to me, "you are my Son;
this day I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will give you
the nations for an inheritance
and the ends of the earth for your possession."
Yet we have a tendency to doubt the supernatural nature of his kingdom. We treat Jesus like a helpful imaginary friend who doesn't have the power to initiate in relationship with us. We talk and do not listen. We pray and do not expect miracles. We read "We receive from him whatever we ask," and immediately think, 'No we don't.'. But wait, what else does it say? We read on, "because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him." OK, so we don't do that either. But does this mean that we need to earn miracles? Does it mean that the reason the Church seems no more supernatural than the government or the History channel is because we've failed to earn the proof? No! It isn't a matter of earning. It is a matter of hearts open and set on the kingdom. Because the commandments to which he refers are not the ones we think of at first:
And his commandment is this:
we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.
It isn't any arbitrary list of ritualistic rules. It is love on a supernatural level to which we are called to be open. When we are open to it miracles flow, as it were, naturally.
Ask, seek, and knock! He longs to give us the deepest desires of our hearts.
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