“Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness.” Jesus said, “I took My place in the midst of the world, and I appeared to them in flesh. I found all of them intoxicated; I found none of them thirsty. And My soul became afflicted for the sons of men, because they are blind in their hearts and do not have sight; for empty they came into the world, and empty too they seek to leave the world. But for the moment they are intoxicated. When they shake off their wine, then they will repent.”
I was re-reading some of the Gospel of Thomas this morning. It was one of the 13 early Christian writings found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi in Northern Egypt.
Its many references to light have always fascinated me, as I am connected to many light-filled moments in my life. Here Jesus says "There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness.” To me this is reminiscent of other things he is reported to have said, like don't hide your light under a bushel, let your light shine, etc.
It seems to me that we are called to The Light and to let It flow and shine through us. We don't have to go somewhere else to find it. We cannot purchase it. It is already within us. If we don't shine it, we contribute to the darkness.
Perhaps the darkness has intoxicated us so that we forgot who we are. Perhaps this is why, with the current attack on religion going on all over the world, there are those who are purveyors of darkness. From the woke shores of the far far left to the Marxist shores rising in so many nations, there is darkness. No Light of God is welcomed. Yet there are those all across this planet refusing to let their light go out. To you I say, shine your light, keep shining, refuse the darkness.
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