If we walk in the light (Fr. Patrick Summerhayes / Henri Nouwen)

They say that in faith, the longest journey
you will ever take is
from your head to your heart.

--Fr. Patrick Summerhays,
 Homily, OLMC, Mill Valley,
December 11, 2022 

    Trusting in the unconditional love of God: that is the way to which Jesus calls us. The more firmly you grasp this, the more readily will you be able to perceive why there is so much suspicion, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, violence, and discord in our world. Jesus himself interprets this by comparing God’s love to the light. He says: 

Though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness to light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, to prevent his actions from being shown up; but whoever does the truth comes out into the light, so that what he is doing may plainly appear as done in God. 

    Jesus sees the evil in this world as a lack of trust in God’s love. He makes us see that we persistently fall back on ourselves, rely more on ourselves than on God, and are inclined more to love of self than love of God. So we remain in darkness. If we walk in the light, then we are enabled to acknowledge that everything good, beautiful, and true comes from God and is offered to us in love. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Lauren Wright Pittman, Born Again, https://www.churchsp.org/nicodemus-in-art/
Nouwen quotation source