I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness

 

 Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.  And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.  I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.  And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.  He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him -- the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.  For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.  And I know that His command is everlasting life.  Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."

 

- John 12:44–50 

 

In yesterday's reading, Jesus said as He spoke in the temple, "While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light."  These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.  But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke:  "Lord, who has believed our report?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?"  Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:  "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them."  These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.  Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

 

Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.  And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.  I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.  And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.  He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him -- the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.  For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.  And I know that His command is everlasting life.  Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."  My study bible comments on today's reading that Christ does not judge with favoritism or partiality.   It says that He has spoken the words of life, words of love, forgiveness, repentance, virtue, and mercy.  His words will be the unbending standard by which all people are judged on the last day.  

Christ is the light in the world; we hear His words and heed them so that we, also, might live in the light.  They are the light by which we seek guidance for our own footsteps today.  It's important to understand that judgment is not condemnation by Christ.  It is rather simply left to those who wish to reject the light to dwell in the darkness.  That is, His teachings and His words mean something.  His Person means something.  There is a mystical reality that connects all together with us.  We might try to hear and listen to it, to perceive that reality, to try to walk in harmony with it, to find the guidance for our lives that comes from that place.  But we might also reject, tune it out, "harden our hearts" against it, blind ourselves to the way it points, and make ourselves deaf to whatever it is seeking to tell us.  These struggles are real, they are within us, and they are also reflected through the circumstances in which we might find ourselves.  Christ's light is in His teachings but also in the mystical reality of the broader notion of the Church; that is, in the koinonia, or communion of the Church.  That is the Body of the Church that constitutes the entire mystical choice, the connection between Christ within the Trinity, and all of creation which seeks to serve and worship, including the infinitude of angels who serve, and the great cloud of saints among the living and who have passed, and even who are to come.  This is the reality within which Christ seeks to keep us close to Him, living with Him, and dwelling in His light.  All of this may be rejected and cut off within ourselves, through gradual choices we make, through selfishness or lack of compassion, in all the ways life can offer to us something that is seemingly better and does nominally ask sacrifice and service.  This is the way that the judgment works.  We may serve Christ as witnesses to His light, seeking the best we can to live our lives as He asks of us, communing in prayer to seek His way that draws us into closer communion.  It is all about seeking that light that He teaches us about and proclaims so strongly in today's reading.  And everything in His word comes back to His union with the Father.   This is why Christ is the light and His words are the light we seek to see by.  He says, "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.  And I know that His command is everlasting life.  Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."  The Scriptures are also called the "breath" or Word of God, for they seek to give us the word which the Word has come into the world to give.  These are the commands of everlasting life.  Let us remember the mystical power in this light, a power we reject when we turn away.