In our daily activities of life, the importance of light cannot be overemphasized. Just as water and food, light is also one of the basic necessities of life. In our Country Nigeria, where Electric Power supply is very poor, people are roused up with joy and shout Up Nepa! or exclaim in Pidgin English, Nepa don bring Light! when Electric Power is supplied by the PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria). The Plant needs adequate sunlight for photosynthesis i.e. the energy requirement to afford growth, bloom and produce seed. To this end, a rational mind is convinced that physical light is necessary for physical life. In the same way, spiritual light is equally necessary for spiritual life, which can only be fulfilled in the light of God. Just as plant follows and tend towards the part of light to be safe and grow well, so do we as believers need the light of Christ to be saved and spiritually healthy like the blind man who was healed by Jesus in the gospel and to carry our good deeds like St Paul and right judgement like Samuel in the first reading when he anointed David despite his external appearance. In the Gospel Acclamation, Jesus reminds us that He is the light of the world, anyone who follows him will have the light of life. In Nigeria Pidgin English, there is an adage that says “Follow who know road” which means taking the same direction of a right leader. At this point, one might tend to ask who knows the true way to follow? No doubt, it is Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life.
In today’s liturgy, Jesus is seen as the light of truth, light of God’s word, the light of healing and the light of eternal life. As the light of the world, he wants to guide us along the right path for the sake of his name. God does not act and see in the same way man does. Like David in the first reading, He is interested in anointing and saving our souls, that is, our inward appearance. As a Good Shepherd he does not want us to walk or journey in darkness, sin or guilt. In the Apostolic Exhortation of St Pope John Paul II “PastoresDaboVobis” (I will give you Shepherds), the Pope stated that “God’s heart has revealed itself to us fully in the heart of Christ the Good Shepherd. Christ’s heart continues today to have compassion for multitudes… and people need to come out of their anonymity and fear, to walk in safety along the paths of life, to be found again if they have become lost, to be loved, to receive salvation as the supreme gift of God’s love.” Today, this promise of God’s light needs to be evangelized and practised in our world and society that has been blinded by the darkness of sin. We live in an era where relativism, liberalism, secularism and modernism has pointed series of distortion and negative drive to our sense of choice and judgment in life. To be free from the world’s darkness of immorality, corruption and sin, we should abide in the words of St Paul that tells us to walk as Children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good, right and true, then try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Dear friends in Christ, just as the blind man in today’s gospel reading needs the light of God’s healing to see again, we too, suffer from various forms of blindness and need to see with God’s light and also walk through the light of Christ.
Like the Pharisees, some of us doubt the light of God and are spiritually blind towards appreciating the miracles and daily blessings of God in our lives and that of our neighbours’. Someare blinded by the inner darkness of fear, worldly attachments, frivolous pleasures, blunted conscience and false beliefs.Some are blinded by unfriendly friends, whose ways are deceptive, misleading and dark in sin. While some are blinded by greed, selfishness and corruption. Scriptures says “their end is destruction. Their god is their stomach, they take pride in things they should be ashamed of; and their minds are set on earthly things.” (Phil. 3:9). Darkness projects anxiety, fears, despair and can send a warning to our brain to watch out for danger, evil or unknown circumstances. Light, on the other hand projects all that is good: joy, holiness, grace, right path, hope, truth, life in abundance and so on. So, as Children of light, let us avoid the devil and follow the Good Shepherd, let us avoid the darkness of sin and embrace the light of Christ’s mercy at the Confessional during this Lenten season, let us avoid the seed of evil and accept the fruit of light, let us avoid the inclinations of the flesh and set our affection on things that are eternal. When we walk in the light of Christ, surely God’s goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in his house of the Lord forever and ever.
