"Whoever hates his brother is in darkness;
he walks in darkness
and does not know where he is going
because the darkness has blinded his eyes."
Recently, I met a good, hard-working Christian man who was deeply
troubled by an ethnic group in America. He actually didn't know many
members of that ethnic group personally, but was convinced this ethnic
group was this country's doom as we know it. Truly 'darkness
has blinded his eyes' to any goodness or virtues of this ethnic group.
However, he knew as a Christian his attitude, his 'hatred' was not
right.
It occurred to me: Isn't that what we all need to pray for?
Namely, that the darkness be dispelled from our relationships, especially
between ethnic groups in the world. Or in any relationship in which
we hold resentments?
Let the Light shine in. Let us all walk in the Light of Christ.
As John says: 'the true light is already shining.'
We only need the grace to see it, and rejoice with Simeon (whose name
means "God has heard"):
"my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you prepared in the sight of every people,
a light to reveal you to the nations. . ."
We walk in the Light of Christ when we keep his commandments and we
imitate Christ, as John reminds us:
"This is the way we may know that we are in union with him:
whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked."
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