Let us not be afraid zo let Jesus’ light into our darkness,

Let us not be afraid to let Jesus’ light into our darkness.  This passage from the Gospel of John (cf. 12:44-50) shows us the intimacy between Jesus and the Father. Jesus did what the Father told him. That is why he says: “He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me” (v. 44). Then he clarifies his mission: “I have come into the world as a light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness” (v. 46). He presents himself as light. Jesus’ mission is to illuminate: light. He himself said: “I am the light of the world” (Jn 8:12). The prophet Isaiah prophesied about this light: “The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:1). It is the promise of a light that will illuminate the people. The apostles’ mission is also to bring light. Paul said this to King Agrippa: “I was chosen to enlighten, to bring this light – which is not mine, it belongs to someone else – but to bring light” (cf. Acts 26:18). This is Jesus’ mission: to bring light. The apostles’ mission is to bring the light of Jesus. To enlighten. The world was in darkness, yet the drama of Jesus’ light was that it was rejected. John says it clearly at the beginning of the Gospel: “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him; they loved the darkness more than the light” (cf. Jn 1:9-11). Getting used to the darkness, living in darkness: they do not know how to receive the light; they cannot; they are slaves of darkness. And this will be Jesus’s continuous battle: to enlighten, to bring light that makes things visible as they are; it makes freedom visible, it makes truth visible, and it shows the path to choose with the light of Jesus. Paul experienced this passage from darkness to light when the Lord met him on the road to Damascus. He was blinded. Blind. The Lord’s light blinded him. Then, after a few days, through baptism, he regained his sight (cf. Acts 9:1-19). He experienced passing from the darkness in which he was to the light. It is also our passage, which we sacramentally received in baptism: that is why baptism in the first centuries was called “enlightenment” (cf. St. Justin, Apology I, 61, 12), because it gave you light, “it gave you entry”. That is why in the rite of baptism we give the father and mother a lighted candle, because the child is enlightened. Jesus brings light. But the people, those people, his people, rejected him. They are so accustomed to darkness that the light blinds them; they do not know how to walk (cf. Jn 1:10-11). This is the drama of our sin: sin blinds us, and we cannot bear the light. We have diseased eyes. And Jesus says this clearly in the Gospel of Matthew: “If your eye is diseased, your whole body will be diseased. If your eye sees only darkness, how much darkness is within you?” (Cf. Mt 6:22-23). ​​Darkness… And conversion is the passage from darkness to light. To

But what are the things that make the eyes, the eyes of faith, sick? Our eyes are sick: what is it that “knocks them down”, what blinds them? Vices, worldly spirit, pride – vices that “push you down”. And these three things – vices, superiority, the spirit of worldliness – lead you to associate with others to remain safe in the darkness. We often talk about mafias: this is it. However, there are “spiritual mafias”; there are “domestic mafias”; it is always the search for someone else to hide and remain in the darkness. It is not easy to live in the light. The light makes us see many ugly things inside us that we do not want to see: vices, sins… Let us think of our vices, let us think of our pride, let us think of our worldly spirit: these things blind us; they distance us from the light of Jesus.

And yet, when we begin to reflect on this, we do not come up against a wall; no, we find a way out, because Jesus himself says that he is the light, and he also says, “I did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it” (cf. Jn 12:46-47). Jesus himself, the light, says: “Have courage: let yourself be enlightened, let yourself be seen as you are inside, because it is I who will move you forward, I will save you. I do not condemn you. I save you” (cf. v. 47). The Lord saves us from the darkness that we have inside, from the darkness of daily life, social life, political life, national life, international life… There is so much darkness inside. And the Lord saves us. But first he asks us to look at it; to have the courage to see our darkness, so that the light of the Lord can enter and save us. Let us not fear the Lord: he is very good, gentle, and close to us. He came to save us. Let us not fear the light of Jesus.