"... called out of darkness into his wonderful light."
These words are the final verse of today's gospel reading. As Christians, true followers of Jesus the Christ, we should be signs to others of the three most important virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity. For the moment let us call it LOVE. Then consider that LOVE is truly reflected out to others from our very being by another word for CHARITY, the word SERVICE. This is the theme that is easily found in the three readings today.
Now let's put those thoughts aside for a moment. So often in the non-spiritual world we are concerned with SUCCESS --- accomplishments that result in power, prestige, possessions, and achievements. For us this SUCCESS concern begins when we are very young, so young that we can neither walk nor talk. From those diaper days adults, especially parents, want us to walk ASAP! Right? They try every day to "educate" so that we can become "the greatest" little two-years old.
Here's the question: do we experience a similar concern about our spiritual life? The answer may be yes. However, I suspect the contrary to be the case for most. Why? Because we don't speak about being successful spiritual beings. Let me repeat this thought: for most Christians SUCCESS and SPIRITUALITY are minimally connected. What do we ask young people? "How are you doing in school?" What we are asking is this: "How are you 'doing,' how are you achieving in your studies?" "How's your Math? How's your language class?" The questions are not about the teachers at this point. It's about SUCCESS, isn't it?
Now let me take you back in time a few decades, to 1923 to be precise. At that time a man whose name gets little if any recognition in today's world, wrote a SUCCESS genre book titled Dynamic Thought. It is a classic about how we think. Henry Thomas Hamblin endeavored to teach his readers about a simple reality: we become what thought we incorporate in our thinking! We become our thoughts to some degree. Kinda scary, isn't it? One of his most powerful thoughts is this: you "grow into the likeness of that which you meditate upon." Think about that for a moment.
Now back to the virtues mentioned earlier: FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY=LOVE=SERVICE. The good professor Hamblin also wrote these words: Every successful [person] is a [person] of faith, every successful [person] is a [person] who cultivates hope. If you know a successful man or woman in whatever work or lifestyle you most like see a person whose life has be "animated by hope and sustained by faith." We can easily nod our heads when we read "Nothing on our earth has ever been accomplished without the inspiration of hope and the tenacity of faith." Again, words from the mind and heart of Henry Hamblin.
Now with this in mind, let us stop for a moment and consider this question: How are you doing in your SPIRITUAL LIFE?" Imagine someone asking you this at the Giant or Safeway store or at the beauty salon or at the bar of a local restaurant! What a shocker! Surely we have reason to think about this.
So, back to the theme that is in the readings - SERVICE - which by the way is the enfleshment of the virtue of LOVE. Through an animated hope and a sustained faith the virtue of charity or love or service becomes a success story.
Our calling out of darkness is to bring the effort for SUCCESS into the SPIRITUAL LIFE. Will it be difficult. Not at all! For sure it will be much easier that we estimate if we but remember these words that are also a part of the last verse of the gospel today:
"... whoever believes [has faith] in me will do the works I do,
and will do greater ones than these
because I am going to the Father."
WOW!
