{"id":2274,"date":"2017-09-25T09:06:36","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T13:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2274"},"modified":"2017-09-25T09:06:36","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T13:06:36","slug":"bearing-light-to-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/bearing-light-to-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Bearing Light to the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s gospel<\/a> begins with Jesus saying,\u00a0“No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel\u00a0or sets it under a bed;\u00a0rather, he places it on a lampstand<\/em>
\nso that those who enter may see the light<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

If we buy a lamp, we do not hide it under the bed. \u00a0That would be contrary to the purpose of the lamp. \u00a0Likewise, if we have a small lamp, we don’t put it on the floor. \u00a0We put it on a lampstand to lift the light up to where it can be seen and bring light to the world.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the Book of the Gospels is carried in the opening procession for Mass. \u00a0It is not carried under the arm and hanging down the side of the deacon or lector carrying it. \u00a0Rather, they hold it up to be seen by all. \u00a0It contains the words of Jesus and the story of his life on the world. \u00a0Jesus is the light of the world and his word must be held up and revered.<\/p>\n

How do you carry the Word of God in your life? \u00a0When I say “carry” I don’t literally mean how do you carry a Bible. \u00a0Although, if you do carry a Bible with you, how you carry it might say something about how you look at the Word of God. \u00a0Rather, when I refer to carrying the Word of God in your life, I am referring to how you show your faith in public.<\/p>\n

For instance, when you are in a restaurant for a meal, do you say grace before eating? \u00a0Some people say they feel uncomfortable praying then because people are looking at them. \u00a0That is the best time to pray! \u00a0Let others see you pray. \u00a0To go a step further, I think of the people who go out for coffee or breakfast after Mass. \u00a0What do you talk about? \u00a0Do you ever talk about what your heard at church? \u00a0Again, people might fear others are listening and they don’t want to be divisive.<\/p>\n

Our nation is\u00a0showing <\/strong><\/em>it divisiveness more since our last election. \u00a0Notice, I put emphasis on “showing.” \u00a0I’m not sure that our nation is becoming any more divided. \u00a0We are just showing it more because people feel more free to speak up. \u00a0We need to speak up for our faith. \u00a0The world is looking darker. \u00a0I think part of this has happened as people say that we need to allow for all types of lifestyle except that we aren’t supposed to talk about faith. \u00a0They say that’s a private matter. \u00a0So what has happened since people speak less about their faith. \u00a0The world has gotten darker.<\/p>\n

The world needs the light of Christ.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s gospel begins with Jesus saying,\u00a0“No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel\u00a0or sets it under a bed;\u00a0rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.” If we buy a lamp, we do not hide it under the bed. \u00a0That would be contrary to the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Bearing Light to the World’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[220,9],"tags":[345],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-AG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2275,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2274\/revisions\/2275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}