Jesus, the Light of Love
Introduction
- John’s gospel is known as the Gospel of Light. He portrays Jesus as the Light of the world.
- Jn 8:12 – “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me never walk in darkness”. Jn 1:4 – ‘Word is the light of men’. (v.9) – ‘true light was coming into the world’.
- Darkness here is considered as evil, unbelief or ignorance.
Content
- Darkness as absence of Divine
o In the background of today’s gospel passage it is said, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. It shows that he was in ignorance who wanted to be enlightened by Jesus.
o In John 13:30 it is written, “As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night”. The word ‘night’ shows his evil intentions.
- Evil takes place in dark. But sometimes people love dark rather than light.
o There is a story of a man who woke up hungry in the middle of the night. He lit a candle and began eating grapes from a bowl beside his bed. He took a bite from one and saw a worm in it; so he threw it out of through the window. He bit into the second grape, found another worm, and threw it away also. Reasoning that he wouldn't have any grape left to eat if he continued to look at it in the light, he blew out the candle and quickly ate the rest of the grapes.
- Come to the light, is our call as disciples of Jesus.
o To come to the light (to escape from the poison of the snake that was an evil) what Israelites did is explained in the gospel. They made a bronze serpent and raised it up on a pole. Those who looked at that bronze serpent were saved and delivered from the darkness (of poison or death).
o To escape from the evil that surrounds us is our wish and the only way is to look up to Jesus who is raised from the ground on the cross.
o What are the evils that engulf us? It can be our bad habits, evil thoughts, braking of commandments, unwanted worries and tensions, sufferings, etc.
o In order to come to the light, we have to look at Jesus who is crucified.
- When we look at the cross we see the love of our Heavenly Father.
o He loves us so much that He gave His only Son for our salvation.
o God’s love is entirely different from what we practice. Our love is possessive, limited and conditional. God’s love is self-giving, limitless and unconditional. These qualities make the Father’s love unique.
o We are called to enjoy and share His love.
Conclusion
- By enjoying God’s love we are called to come to the
o Light of Conviction,
o Light of Conversion,
o Light of Communion and
o Light of Consecration
- During this Lenten season let us come to Jesus the light of the world and purify ourselves by that Light.
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