Light in the Darkness

5th Week in Ordinary Time - Isaiah 58:7-10

Thus says the LORD:

Share your bread with the hungry,

shelter the oppressed and the homeless;

clothe the naked when you see them,

and do not turn your back on your own.

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,

and your wound shall quickly be healed;

your vindication shall go before you,

and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,

you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!

If you remove from your midst

oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;

if you bestow your bread on the hungry

and satisfy the afflicted;

then light shall rise for you in the darkness,

and the gloom shall become for you like midday.

How are we supposed to be the light of the world? The Prophet Isaiah gives us some very practical steps that later tradition will call the corporal works of mercy: feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, cloth the naked. Many of us practice these things regularly through various outreach programs at our parish or on our own. If you are a parent of young children, you practice them multiple times each day in your home.

Why does the Lord need to tell us to share, shelter, clothe, and not turn our backs on our own? These things are obvious, right? Yet there is something in our fallen, concupiscent hearts that make “oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech” far too easy, even toward our “own,” whomever they may be. The antidote to this gloom that we all experience within ourselves is practicing the corporal works of mercy. The Lord says through Isaiah that when we do these things, “your wound,” that ache inside your heart, the gloom that too easily creeps in, “shall quickly be healed.” 

There is a twofold luminous result to practicing the corporal work of mercy. First, “your light shall break forth like the dawn,” that light that Jesus said you must let shine before others so that they can glorify the Lord. Second, “the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard,” your protection, as the glory cloud was for Israel during the Exodus (see Exodus 14:19). There is an interesting cycle at play here. We do good so that others glorify the Lord, and his glory in turn protects us as a rear guard. 

The Responsorial Psalm is meant to help us react and respond to the First Reading. This week, it is a clear and appropriate response. It is a metaphysical truth that “the just man is a light in the darkness.” Acting justly, in accordance with the works of mercy, will make “your light break forth like the dawn.” What exactly is your light? It is the light of Christ that you received in Baptism, symbolized by the baptismal candle being lit from the Easter Candle. When we feed, shelter, and clothe, we act like Jesus. We conform ourselves to the way he lived. We allow him, the Light of the World (see John 8:12), to shine through us. In a way that surpasses the purely physical, the just person is a light in the world. 

Today, the Spirit calls us to glow brighter, to show greater love through concrete, corporeal actions. The Lord wants to heal our wounded hearts, to be our rearguard. The remedy, as always, is to live more like Jesus.