Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Acts 12:24—13:5  +  John 12:44-50
May 6, 2020

“I came into the world as light ….”

When we recite the Creed on Sundays and solemnities, we profess that God the Son is “eternally begotten of the Father.”  This statement is a profession of the divinity of Jesus Christ, which relates to Jesus’ assertion in yesterday’s Gospel passage that “The Father and I are one.”

Meditate on this truth that the Father and the Son are one in light of another phrase from the Creed:  that is, that the Son is “Light from Light” .  How is God light?  This is a metaphor, of course, but a very pregnant one.  Jesus proclaims in today’s Gospel passage, “I came into the world as light….”  He is talking, of course, about His mission in this world having the same effect as light.

Jesus’ earthly mission is continued through time by His Mystical Body, the Church.  Within the Church, your vocation bears—in some way—a share in the meaning of this metaphor:  “that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.”  We might reflect on today’s Gospel in conjunction with Jesus’ words during the Sermon on the Mount:  “You are the light of the world.”  Our mission as the light of the world leads others, and ourselves, into the light of the Beatific Vision.