Meditation for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils (Matthew 5:14-19)
The true light is Christ: he came to give light to the world, and he made his disciples reflect his light as the moon reflects the light of the sun. To be light means to guide others in their lives and expose evil; and the light of God’s children is to do good works, as they learned from their heavenly Father, and to guide others through these works too, giving them light. This is the work of God’s children.
And this Gospel passage is read on the Sunday of the Fathers gathered at the first six Ecumenical Councils. The holy Fathers stress the need to interpret Scripture correctly, so that faith becomes people’s life. Faith must first be seen and lived. How, in this context, are we to understand the Church’s choice of this passage from the Sermon on the Mount, where the Lord Jesus says that his disciples are the light of the world, and that the task of light is to shine and show good works so that God the Father may be glorified?
The world needs light. God’s children are asked to be the light of the world: this is the mission the Lord Christ has given them. Light shines in the darkness, the more so as the need for light grows. That is why the more people’s sins increase in a generation, the greater the need for saints to shine in the midst of that generation.
God created us in his image and likeness, that is, to live by his light. This is what we are: light. Sadly, people today imagine themselves to be just a dark mass of sins and weaknesses, and they live by the rule: I am a sinner, there is no light in me, and I will never be enlightened. So they lean more towards darkness than light, and are overcome by a spirit of despair, loss and confusion. But the firm truth of Scripture is this: God has put his light in us, and the darkness has not overcome it. “Blessed is he who enlightens every person coming into the world” (baptismal service).
A single lamp can light a whole room… so a single saint can light a whole city. And however much a saint tries to hide his holiness, he cannot, as the psalm says of the Lord’s work: “He will bring forth your righteousness as the light” (Psalm 37:6).
My beloved, if in our love for people we long to serve them and dissolve into them like salt in food, so as to present them through repentance as a delicious dish that pleases God, God does not let us dissolve into the earth; he lifts us up and counts us as a light shining in the world. He sets us up like the moon receiving the light of the Sun of righteousness to reflect its brightness on the earth, so that it may be lit up in his love. He reflects his light on the believer, who becomes more radiant than the visible sun; no one can hide him, even if the believer himself wanted with all his strength to hide. No one can harm him, not even his wicked opponents. The Apostle Paul says: “that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”
How, then, can we walk the path of hope, that is, become aware that we are the light of the world? In the New Testament the word “light” refers to acquiring enlightenment, or to alertness and watchfulness. There are many examples: the woman who lost her coin lights a lamp to look for it; the ten virgins light their lamps while waiting for the Bridegroom, and they remind us of the need for vigilance, since no one knows the day or the hour when the Bridegroom will come. The eye is the lamp of the body… “If your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:23).
Saint John Chrysostom says: “Just as such a city cannot be hidden, so it is impossible for what they preach to end in silence and obscurity.”
How can we drive out fear and kindle the light within us? The only way is to hand our lives over to God, and it is fear that holds us back. Here begins the process of purification from sins, which leads to the stage of illumination. This is the way of faith, the way of the Fathers; this is what they taught, lived and experienced: to show people first the light of God within them as a life of love. They burned with prayer like a lit candle that is consumed to give light to those around it, through love, truth, joy and comfort (good works), for the glory of God. When we see the light within us, we look at others with the same light.
By the image of the city on a hill that cannot be hidden, the Lord wanted to encourage his disciples to serve the preaching of the Word, assuring them that persecution cannot hide the truth or cancel God’s work. He also compares us to the lamp that is not put under a bushel but on a lampstand, giving light to everyone in the house. And what is this bushel that puts out the lamp of our inner light, if not subjecting our spiritual life to material measures?
The bushel also stands for whatever blocks the spiritual light, when a person wraps his spirit in thick, passing bodily pleasures, imprisoning his spirit and keeping it from soaring towards eternity.
That is why the Lord Christ said: “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others” (Matthew 5:14-16). A light placed in a glass lamp is not hidden; so however much the saint tries to hide his virtues, they are all the more revealed, as Christ’s light grows stronger in his life through the virtue of humility, and he becomes more transparent, like clear glass, because of the simplicity that is in Christ.
Union with God is the only way for the light in a person to shine out to the world. And this union has an essential driving force: man’s desire to live in God, and God’s love for man; the light of the creature seeks with all its strength the true uncreated Light. In this way the light of saving truth fills our being through purification, illumination and union with God. And so the light overflows into the universe, lighting the sun, the planets, the stars, all creation and the whole cosmos, and watering every creature with life-giving life.
We received this light when we received illumination, that is, the grace of baptism. We must follow the light that guides everyone to salvation. This light never sets, and it bears fruit in us for eternal life. This is the joyful hope that the Lord Jesus Christ reveals to us: “You are the light of the world.”
