Psalm response: Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!

          John has all sorts of polarities here – new commandment and old, darkness as opposed to true light, etc. – and from that we might think that the world is actually black and white and that the morally and spiritually “correct” choice will always be evident.  That would make our decisions clear and the choices easy for someone dedicated to finding God and serving him.

          Reality, however, has endless shades of grey, as any mature mind must recognize.  Why, then, does John suggest otherwise?  Maybe because he wants us to realize for ourselves that nothing truly human is truly simple, that an authentic worship of God means choosing him in the little things, a step at a time, a sort of pilgrimage instead of a simple once-and-for-all decision. 

          I think, though, that is it also because we do not live only in that material world that we think that reality consists of but that we also live on the edge of the eternal cosmic world where God is all, a world where there really are only two choices.  In the womb we have no choices, and once we die we have made all our choices, so here on earth is where we must decide who we are, what kind of people we want to be. 

          Our lives are not a matter of one single decision and choice but a matter of our values and goals, of all the little directions and activities we choose for ourselves.

          How do we cope?  As best we can.  We are not supposed to achieve perfection in this world, but as God’s little children we must be eager to do our best, to learn from our mistakes and grow, to be unfailingly generous with our selves and our gifts. 

          The Father loves in a special way those who try to follow his Son home to him by imitating him ...