✝️ REFLECTION CAPSULE – Sep 25, 2023: Monday
“Letting the light of Christ’s Love to burn and blaze like a radiating fire through our lives!”
(Based on Ezra 1:1-6 and Lk 8:16-18 – Monday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1)
One of the beautiful hymns known to many of us is: “Shine Jesus Shine!”
A stanza in this very popular hymn states:
“As we gaze on Your Kingly Brightness
So our faces display Your Likeness
Ever changing from glory to glory
>> Mirrored here, may our lives tell Your Story
>> Shine on me, shine on me!”
Yes, each one of us are expected to “mirror the Light of Christ, by our lives!”
Is my life mirroring the Light of Christ to others?
In the Gospel of the Day, Jesus tells to His disciples:
“No one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a bowl or puts it under the bed; rather he puts it on a lamp stand, so that people coming in may see the light…” (Lk 8:16)
This passage in the Gospel of St. Luke is just preceded by the Parable of the Sower (Lk 8: 4-15).
The parable of the Sower beautifully illustrates the various modes of reception of the Word of God.
>> When the Word of God is welcomed and received with an open heart, one is able to bear fruit…
… fruit in abundance.
>> A person, who receives God’s Word with an open heart and a receptive mind…
… is able to reflect it in one’s life.
Christian Life resembles a magnifying glass which allows God’s Word to pass through and kindles others with the fire of His love!
>> We need to be an open and active medium allowing God to permeate through us, in order to let others experience His Love!
Do I …
… allow God’s word to work in me, so that the depressed may experience God’s light of joy and happiness?
… sanction God’s power to direct me, so that the suffering humanity may experience God’s light of healing?
… permit the seed of God’s word to take root in me, so that the sinful may experience God’s light of mercy?
… agree to the authority of God to control me, so that the weak may experience God’s light of strength?
… let God’s commandments to guide me, so that the wayward may experience God’s light of acceptance?
Jesus says, “No one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a bowl or puts it under the bed…”
Times have changed drastically however…
Earlier times, one used to be proud to call oneself as a Christian and witness boldly to be known as one.
Today, perhaps, many of us feel a tweak and go a bit uncomfortable when called publicly as a Christian!
>> What was a matter a pride some years has today possibly become a matter of awkwardness and uneasiness.
How well do I witness the Light of Christian Faith to the world outside?
There are many tiny yet significant gestures and practical actions by which we may be hiding the Christian Light in us, with a bowl, and not allowing it to shine forth…
>> Feeling ashamed to bow publicly before the Blessed Sacrament or as we enter a Church…
>> Feeling uneasy to make a sign of the cross or say prayers before meals when many are there…
>> Feeling embarrassed to be called a Christian or a Consecrated person in a secular surrounding…
>> Feeling disinterested to carry a Bible or wear a crucifix around the neck or hold on to a rosary etc…
>> Feeling strange to either wear or avoid certain dresses or habits, especially thinking what will others feel…
>> Feeling awkward to say about Jesus or the Gospel virtues to our friends, thinking that our thoughts are naive…
>> Feeling bored to participate in the Sacraments and show no interest in making extra efforts to prepare for them…
There are many more occasions wherein we may be losing out a chance to witness Christ and His Love!
The nature of the sun, is to shine upon and enliven the whole earth.
>> But if one puts a magnifying glass in the rays of the sun over a paper, this light of the sun will turn into fire.
The nature of God’s Love is to shine upon and enliven the whole universe.
>> But if we act as a magnifying glass, united with Jesus, our Lord, this light of God’s Love will turn to fire!
Let us follow God’s Will deeply and closely in our lives…
… and let the light of Christ’s Love to burn and blaze like a radiating fire through our lives!
Shine, Jesus, Shine!
God Bless! Live Jesus!