"There was a time you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Well, then, live as children of the light.”

Eph 5:8-9

I am the youngest of eight boys. Can you imagine growing up in my household? Through the grace of God my parents survived it all. As you know, boys will be boys, and we liked to “connect” with each other in activities like wrestling and punching. Yes, sometimes punching occurred in our Christian household. When we were “connecting” with each other in wrestling, I can remember dad telling us to stop or take it outside. He did not want any furniture to be damaged.

One of our favorite things to do as boys happened when mom and dad would leave home. We would go to the sock bin, ball up all those socks, and prepare for an all-out sock fight. Each of us would be given our ammunition and war would commence. To make the sock fight interesting, we would turn out all the lights in the house so our firing of the socks at each other could be done covertly.

Picture that mayhem. Eight not so tame boys, running in the dark, firing away. Obviously, there were some problems we encountered in the dark. Being in the dark, you could not see where you were going and you would run into things. The furniture and walls would just never move out of your way. You would run into them and that would cause pain. There were more than a few bruises and scrapes from our adventures in the dark.

With our lives, we can choose to live in the dark. Running through life without light, we take on suffering that we would never have to suffer if we could see our path. To avoid this unnecessary suffering, we can bring all the darkness we have in our lives to The Light. For example, say that you have been somehow betrayed, abused, taken lightly, lied to or gossiped about. There is a darkness of suffering you encounter from this. What to do with it? Some options to try and soothe yourself are drink or drugs, retaliation, promiscuity. Bringing these options of soothing to the light, you realize they will help in no way and just add more suffering to your life. Here, living in the light calls for forgiveness.

Ephesians 5:8 says we are light in the Lord. We want to bring the darkness of our suffering to the Lord so his Light can chase it all away. Brothers and sisters, turn on the light switch and let the Perfect Light reveal all the ways you have chosen any unnecessary suffering of darkness. Become vulnerable to the Light of the World that you may become light in the Lord.

God’s will!
+Fr. John