Dear Parish Family, 

“The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.”
Today’s readings are all about light and darkness. Isaiah says, “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.” Matthew sees this prophecy fulfilled in Jesus’ preaching and ministry in Galiliee. What is this darkness of which they speak?

We can all look back on times when we lost our way, maybe did things we are now ashamed of. We regret lost opportunities. And now we wonder, “How could I have been so blind? I was really in the dark then.”

All the bad things that make the evening news and the next day’s headlines make it painfully clear that there is a great darkness hovering over our world today. We live in the midst of war, terrorism, mass shootings at our schools and religious sanctuaries, genocide of human lives, civil and political strife. Into this darkness comes the Gospel, the message of Jesus Christ. At Christmas we celebrated the coming of him whom is the light of the world. How could his coming pierce the darkness?
To save the world, Jesus began by going down to the docks in Galilee and choosing four fishermen to follow him. He started with a small number of disciples and yet no one, down the ages, has had a greater impact on people’s minds and hearts. Now numbering over two and a half billion followers of Christ, he has set the world on fire with his light.

What will dispel the darkness that hangs over today’s world? Just like at the docks of Galilee it starts small. With one person refusing to hate, resolving to love. With one person refusing to be selfish, resolving to reach out, with one person refusing to despair, resolving to hope. It starts with you and me.

Yes, Jesus calls us to be fishers of people, in your family, where you go to school, where you work, where you play. I know it might appear to be difficult and somewhat uncomfortable to be fishers of people. We can do it by the way we live, by being morally good, honest, loving people. We can invite people to come to church with us. When we have the opportunity, we can share our faith by simply telling others what our faith means to us.  We can help others in charitable ways as Christ would want us to.

At this moment in history, we are a people who live under a cloud of uncertainty, under threat from those who hate us. But we can walk through this darkness by staying strong in our faith with the light of Christ guiding our way. Just as we can say with the psalmist in today’s readings, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge, of whom should I be afraid? Wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord.”

Ask yourself: “In what ways can I bring light into the darkness around me?”
 

Deacon Rob Pang