But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light
and children of the day.
My morning ritual for these past challenging months of the pandemic is to check the statistics of those who have both contracted Covid as well as those who have tragically died the day before in the New York Times. For the past weeks, those numbers have sadly been spiking, as all the epidemiologists had soberly predicted. Who would have thought that in this age of medical and scientific wonders that we would be facing the same pandemic challenge that the world wrestled with in 1918?
It is so very easy for many faced with the dire predictions of the daily news to become oblivious of the Good News that should be the rock and anchor of hope for us who profess to be followers of the Christ who is the light of the world. How easy it is for us all to let our fears paralyze us and drain our lives of the hope that will ultimately sustain us through the challenges of this life into the glory of the next.
Those words perhaps trip easily off the lips of those who haven’t had to deal with the wrenching and agonizing death of a loved one by Covid. Yet, even for those who have had to face the crucible of this wretched disease, all the more is the hope that Christ has brought to a waiting world for nearly 2000 years, that must be our guiding light leading us through this valley of darkness.
As much as all of us cling to the goodness and beauty that our lives and this world brings, the Good News of the Gospel reminds us that you and I are essentially pilgrims in an alien land. We have an eternal destiny and, as St. Augustine so beautifully stated, our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord! The author to the Letter to the Hebrews said it best when he said, We have not here a lasting city…. No, our homeland will be with the Lord and all those whom we have come to know and love in this life, in the unending glory of the life and eternal communion to come.
And so, as St. Paul reminds us today, despite the darkness that surrounds us, let us be children of the day. And, let us make the beautiful prayer of St. Richard of Chichester our own as we continue our pilgrimage to the promised land.
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly, day by day.