Blessed be God. Praise be to Jesus Christ, forever and ever. Amen.
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill us with joy. Set our hearts ablaze with Your presence.
This week,
I prayed with a Baptist mother who asked if I knew her now‑Catholic son.
I prayed with a former Assembly of God pastor
whose heart has been attacked by the darkness of this world
yet still burns for Jesus.
I spoke with a man entering ministry, wrestling with his own holiness,
wondering if God could use him.
All were hungry to serve,
hungry to shine.
Different stories.
Different traditions.
Yet the same unmistakable Light of Christ
burning in each one.
My friends, every one of us knows what darkness feels like—
the darkness of confusion,
the darkness of division,
the darkness that settles in when life bends the truth,
when the world pulls us in a hundred directions,
when the heart grows tired of trying to hold everything together.
And into that darkness—
not after it improves,
not after we get our act together,
not after the world becomes kinder—
but right there, in the thick of it,
God steps in with His light.
Isaiah tells us that the first places to see the dawn
were not the holy places, not the strong places,
not the places with perfect faith.
No—
it was the forgotten lands,
the borderlands,
the places where anguish had taken root
and gloom had become normal.
There the light rose first.
Because God does not wait for holiness.
God brings holiness.
God does not wait for light.
God becomes light.
And that light does more than comfort.
It liberates.
It breaks yokes.
It shatters burdens.
It lifts the weight off shoulders
that have carried too much for too long.
It is the light that says,
“You are not alone.
You are not abandoned.
You are not forgotten.”
But there is another darkness—
a quieter one,
a more subtle one—
the darkness of division.
The darkness that whispers,
“I belong to this group,”
“I belong to that group,”
“I follow this teacher,”
“I follow that tradition.”
St. Paul heard that whisper in Corinth—
Christians dividing themselves into teams:
Team Paul,
Team Apollos,
Team Cephas.
And Paul cuts through it with one question
that still echoes today:
“Is Christ divided?”
No.
Christ is not divided.
Christ is the Light that dissolves the shadows of tribalism,
the Light that bridges Jew and Gentile,
saint and sinner,
Catholic and Baptist,
Assembly of God and Orthodox,
the Light that gathers us into one Body
with one mission
and one Lord.
Because the light of Christ does not create competing churches.
It creates one family.
One people.
One mission.
And that mission begins the same way it began
by the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus walks into the ordinary—
into the workplace,
into the fishing boats,
into the daily grind—
and He speaks the same words He speaks to us today:
“Come after me.”
Not “come when you’re ready.”
Not “come when you understand everything.”
Not “come once you’ve fixed your life.”
Just—
“Come.”
And then—
“I will make you fishers of men.
I will make you light‑bearers.
I will make you instruments of healing.
I will make you signs of hope
in a world that has forgotten how to hope.”
My friends, the light that entered Galilee
now enters us.
The light that shattered the yoke
now rests upon our shoulders.
The light that gathered fishermen into a mission
now gathers us into one Body
for the salvation of the world.
So today, let us step out of the shadows.
Let us refuse the darkness of division.
Let us walk as children of the Father.
Let us shine with the light that has first shone on us.
Because the world is waiting—
not for our arguments,
not for our labels,
but for our light.
And the Lord—
our light and our salvation—
is already here.
Calling.
Gathering.
Sending.
Shining.
Different stories.
Different traditions.
One Light.
One Christ.
One Body.
Amen.
Be good, be holy,
And never stop preaching the gospel by the way you live your life and love others.
Praise be to Jesus Christ, forever and ever. Amen.
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