A reading of the holy gospel according to Matthew. When Jesus heard that John the Baptist name of Jesus. The Nepthali to fulfill what had been said through the prophet Isaiah. Land of Zebulun, land of Nepthali, along the sea and beyond the Jordan, heathen Galilee, a people living in darkness, has seen a great light on those who inhabit a land overshadowed by death. Light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to proclaim this theme, reform your lives. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus toured all of Galilee. He taught in their synagogues, proclaimed the good news of the kingdom, and cured the people of every disease and illness. As a consequence of all of this, the reputation of Jesus traveled the length of Syria.
They carried to him those afflicted with various diseases and wracked with pain. The possessed, the lunatics, the paralyzed, Jesus cured them all. The great crowd that followed Jesus came from Galilee, the 10 cities, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from across the Jordan. And this is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. Now there is a very interesting play upon light and darkness in the first reading from Saint John's first letter. When you read this, it's difficult to indicate who's saying what. But here, Saint John is quoting from Isaiah the prophet about a great light that will rise and dispel darkness. Dispel darkness.
There are two things I like to say about this. The first is what is our conception of darkness? Because here we're talking about the problem of evil. And the first thing we've got to do when we're talking about the problem of evil is to know what we're talking about. Is darkness an equal reality with light?
Is health of an equal reality or actuality with illness? Is poor health, sickness, of equal actuality with good health, with well good well-being? Are they or aren't they? What do we mean by darkness? What do we mean by ill health?
What do we mean by sin and immorality? Are these concepts of equal positive value as their contraries, goodness, virtue, health, or light? Now we have to get this straight. What are we the absence of something can cause anything. Nothing can't be the cause of something.
And so here, Saint John is appealing to a very a very universal concept that is the idea of light. It's very much in Saint John, and it's very much in Augusta three hundred years later, and it's very much in Catholic theology right down to the present day. Cardinal Newman said, lead thou me on. He prayed for a light when he could not see into the distance. We say, God, enlighten my mind.
Give me light. And so when we think of this darkness darkness that that Jesus Jesus Christ Christ came to dispel, let us realize what we mean by darkness and what we realize by Jesus Christ. He is the light. And when we're thinking in terms of darkness and light, good health and bad health, let us focus not on the darkness, darkness, but but on on the the light. Light.
Let us not think so much in terms of what isn't there of but of what could be there and maybe ought to be there, the light, the goodness. And then let us think in terms of what this can be how Jesus Christ can accomplish what he wants to do. It isn't it isn't being figurative or allegorical to use the word darkness for our confusion about so many things. In a way, no matter where we begin, we wind up by saying, I just don't understand it anymore. Because often enough, when we go from complexity to simplicity, the picture gets more mysterious.
Rather than becoming simplified, it becomes extremely more profound. And so it is not an idle prayer when we beg God for light in darkness. We know what darkness is. Saint John of the Cross wrote a whole book on the dark the midnight or the night of the soul. We know what we mean when we are in a situation that we cannot see or we're in a situation that we cannot understand or we're in a crisis that we find no intelligent explanation for.
We are well aware of these situations, well aware of them. And lead thou me on, lead kindly light. Notice those beautiful words of Newman, kindly light. Now the next point is this. If Jesus Christ could do what he did when he walked Galilee, and notice the text says all of Syria.
Notice there's a lot of geography here. Can he do it now? Can he do it now? It isn't that we ask to be relieved of the burdens of life. It's that we pray for a light to bear them.
That's the point. Saint Paul prayed to be relieved of the sting of the flesh. He wasn't relieved, but he got an answer to his prayer, my grace is sufficient for you. There is the answer. And that's the answer that Jesus Christ brings.
Let us not hesitate to be perfectly frank when we can't see, when the road ahead is confused, and maybe we can't see it at all, When we're so mixed up, when everything not is just plain wrong. Let's admit it. Let's admit it. It's the way it seems to us. But there's no greater moment in our lives that we need Jesus Christ greater than when the darkness is at its worst.
And that's when we need most to pray, lead down me on. Lead kindly light. In the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit. Amen. The lord be with you.