In my childhood church
there were large stained glass windows lining the walls of our vaulted church
ceiling. As students we were encouraged
by our school principal to attend daily mass since the church was right next
door. I remember the early morning
sunlight streaming through the images of saints down to all of us sitting in
the pews. I used to sit and wonder about
the saints pictured in the glass like St. Vincent de Paul holding a child and
helping the poor, St. John Vianney preaching to the children, St. Claire distributing
food to the poor. I only knew them from
what they did in the images. Some I
didn’t even know their names. They
taught me what it was to be a saint. In
reflection a saint is a person whom God’s light shines through. Today’s reading reminds me of that. Our God has given us his light and there is
no way to hide that. Jesus asks us, “Is
a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to
be placed on a lampstand?” The light
shines through us in what we do, how we treat others, and in what we say.
Imagine that God’s love is
so great. In today's Gospel we are told, “The measure with
which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to
you.” There is a universal understanding
of the idea, “The more you give the more you will receive.” It is the law of cause and effect. We begin to learn this when we are
young. When a child shares with their
sibling, aren’t they often rewarded to encourage them to share? It continues throughout life. Children usually expect the material, it is
easily understood and tangible. As we
mature, we begin to understand that the teaching is applied to those things
that we cannot see, they apply to the spiritual realm. How many of us when we were younger did good
things because we thought it would help us get to heaven some day? In that hope of trading good deeds for a
chance at heaven, there is still a part of us that remains selfish. It is as if we are holding our love
ransom. But Jesus calls us deeper into a
more intimate relationship, and calls us to be vessels of heavenly light that
we may bear the Light before all nations.
God’s grace is so abundant in these who love Him that His light shines
through us. We are to be placed on a
lampstand where the life of grace shines forth from within us.
To paraphrase St. Thomas Aquinas tells
us, Christ in the present gives us the gift of grace reserving for immeasurable glory in the life to come. We read in John (10:10)
“I have come, so that they may have life,” this is the present life of grace. We are a just people who lives from faith, which allows us to live in God's grace more deeply, so that we may also receive as His children a life of glory in the future through love. “We know that we are
transferred from death to life, because we love our brothers and sisters, so
let us live through good works.” (1John 3:14)
We are called to be like
the saints in the stained glass windows, allowing God’s light to shine through
us in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
For, “Light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.
(St. Paul to the Ephesians 5:9)
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