December 5, 2014 11am

“The Lord is my light and my salvation.”

They are the words of today’s Responsorial Psalm.

Those words are so appropriate given the promise of Isaiah in the first reading: “Out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see.”

And then in the gospel, Jesus gives sight to two men who are blind.

And so, the words are appropriate: “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”

I think it is true to say that we are all blind in certain ways.

We are sometimes blind to a habit that irritates those around us.

We are sometimes blind to the inspiring qualities of those closest to us.

We are sometimes blind to the signs of God’s love for us in the world of nature and in the necessities and comforts we have.

Our blindness sometimes shows itself in complaining or being negative about life.

And so, we need to pray that the light of God may shine in our hearts and take away our blindness.

Humbly, we need to learn where we are blind by weighing the comments of others.

And we need to learn where we are blind by honestly looking at ourselves in the light of Jesus’ teaching.

The candles on the Advent wreath invite us to do this.

The one candle this week and eventually all four candles speak of light eliminating darkness and gloom.

In response to that, today we pray that the Lord’s light will shine in every corner of our lives, remove our blindness and lift our gloom.

We pray: “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”