Daily Gospel Reflection
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January 27, 2022
Jesus said to his disciples,
“Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket
or under a bed,
and not to be placed on a lampstand?
For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible;
nothing is secret except to come to light.
Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.”
He also told them, “Take care what you hear.
The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you,
and still more will be given to you.
To the one who has, more will be given;
from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
In today’s gospel, Jesus once again calls upon the image of light. He asks a simple question of us: why bring light inside and hide it? When a power outage in our homes occurs, we scramble for the closest flashlight to brighten dark rooms. How then might we be tempted to hide?
Throughout the gospels, Jesus tells us he is the light of the world and that as his disciples, we too are called to be the light. Spreading this light looks different for each of us. For example, while pursuing the study of Chemistry, I’ve come to appreciate the power of small, ordinary acts in spreading God’s love.
Whether I intentionally stop to offer a labmate words of support as they prepare for oral exams or graciously receive gifts of coffee or snacks from classmates when my experiments run into lunch hours, I am sharing a tiny light of love at that moment.
Yet, amongst all the troubles in our world today, I find myself wondering: “How can my small action, my tiny, flickering light make any difference in this immense sea of darkness? Won’t the darkness eventually win?”
C.S. Lewis, writing from the perspective of someone in heaven to a friend in purgatory, shares, “Our light can swallow up your darkness: but your darkness cannot now infect our light.” A tiny candle can be seen for miles on a dark night, just as faith in a small act of God’s love can beat back temptations to despair.
These days, when I feel the urge to place my lamp under my bed—perhaps tired of failed experiments or relentlessly discouraging news stories—I remind myself that the darkness will not win if we all continue to allow our small lights to shine.
Have faith in the power of the light.
Prayer
Blessed are you, O Lord our God. In your divine wisdom you created a universe overflowing with signs of your fatherly care for all creatures. Moreover, through the light of faith you bestow on our earthly family the insight to discern the depths of mystery in all matters. Permit us not to cover our ears at the sound of your voice, nor to shelter our eyes when you speak in mystery. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Angela Merici was a laywoman in fifteenth-century Italy who revolutionized the education of women as well as religious life.
She was born in 1474, the younger of two girls. By the time Angela was 15, the sisters were orphaned and sent to live with an uncle. Angela was distraught when her older sister died suddenly without receiving a final anointing. This event sent Angela to prayer—she joined a group of laypeople who lived in the spirituality of St. Francis, and she prayed fervently for the soul of her sister. She eventually received a vision in which she saw her sister celebrating in heaven.
Angela was admired for her beauty, and people found her hair especially pretty. To divert attention from herself, Angela covered her hair in ashes.
When she was 20, her uncle died, and she returned to her family home. She saw a great need for Christian education for girls—at the time women were educated only if they were rich or if they became religious sisters. Angela, herself, had only received an education by her own hard work.
At the time, girls fell through cracks in the educational system because women were not allowed to be teachers. Unmarried women could not do their own work outside of the house, and nuns lived in cloisters and could not leave the convent.
In response, Angela turned her house into a school to teach girls in her city of Brescia. Other young women joined her there; she formed these teachers into a community dedicated to the education of young women, and their work began to spread. “You have a greater need to serve the poor than they have of your service,” she told her companions.
In 1524, she took a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On the way, she stopped in Crete and was suddenly struck blind. She continued on the pilgrimage, visiting all the sites as though she could see. When she was returning home, she stopped in Crete again, and her sight was restored while she was praying in front of a crucifix. For this reason, she is a patron saint of sick people and those who are disabled.
When the pope heard of the good work she was doing, he invited her to move to Rome. Angela saw this opportunity as a temptation to pride and decided to remain in Brescia with the community she had formed.
In 1534, she chose 12 of the women who shared her work and established a formal religious community, known as the Company of St. Ursula (now known as the Ursulines, or the Angelines). These sisters dedicated their lives to serving God and others but were not to remove themselves from the world, as cloistered orders do. The sisters would live celibate lives in their own homes.
When she died in 1540, there were 24 different communities of Ursuline sisters, and today these sisters lead educational institutions throughout the world. They were the first religious sisters to land in the New World when they arrived in Canada in 1639. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus, and her image appears in these stained glass windows in the Basilica.
St. Angela Merici, teacher of young women and patron saint of those who are disabled—pray for us!