Brethren, light and darkness, eternal life and death just to say are outstanding themes in John's Gospel. After we have seen Jesus as the way to eternal life, John presents another theme, Jesus as the light who came into the world so that whoever believes in him should never walk in darkness. In today's Gospel John equates light as belief in Jesus, that is, when we believe in Jesus, we are walking in the light and no longer in darkness. Believing in Jesus is also believing in the one who sent him, his father in heaven.
It follows therefore that the darkness talked about here is that of unbelief in and rejection of Jesus in our lives. Rejecting Jesus is also rejecting the Father who sent him, for whoever sees Jesus has seen the Father and whoever believes in him believes in the one who sent him. Brethren, if we want to know the Father in heaven, we have to know and believe in Jesus, he is the true manifestation of God and the full revelation of God. We cannot understand God, his goodness, his mercy, his wonderful deeds if we don't believe in Jesus.
Saint Augustine (354-430 AD) summed up our need for Jesus in order to know God as he wrote: "God our Father, we find it difficult to come to you, because our knowledge of you is imperfect. In our ignorance we have imagined you to be our enemy; we have wrongly thought that you take pleasure in punishing our sins; and we have foolishly conceived you to be a tyrant over human life. But since Jesus came among us, he has shown that you are loving, and that our resentment against you was groundless." Knowing Jesus is knowing God the Father and therefore we cannot claim we know God if we don't believe in Jesus.
It's this belief that saves us from all darkness and makes us children of light. This is our choice, we are free to choose either to remain in the dark or walk in the light which Jesus gives. If we don't listen to Jesus and follow his teachings we have chosen to remain in darkness and by this, we have condemned ourselves, Jesus doesn't condemn us, neither did he come to the world to condemn humanity. It is us who pass judgement to ourselves through the choices we make in our daily life.
This self condemnation has made me think about one of the German scholars who talked about Hell. According to him God cannot condemn us to be in hell it's only us who choose to be in hell. He argues that we are all aware of the Lord's absolute goodness, but then we choose to go our way, we distance ourselves and do not want to savour his goodness. When we die, it remains the same, we feel that we are not worthy to be in his presence because of what we did and we keep distance from Him. It is in this keeping distance from his goodness, that we experience hell. Therefore, it's not God who puts us into hell but ourselves.
Brethren, reflect today on which path are you paving, the one of darkness or the one of the light of Christ? Do you believe in Jesus and what he teaches or you are condemning yourself by not believing in Him? Spend some time and reflect on these aspects and pray for the Graces you need to experience the light of the risen Christ.
Let us pray.
Lord God, it's always your will that we should believe in your Son whom you sent in this world. Help us always by the power of the Holy Spirit to believe what he teaches us so that we may gain eternal life and avoid self-condemnation. Amen
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