The Light and Darkness

PART XXXVII

The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light

  Today on 2nd Feb 2024 we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord in the temple. God is showing His Light(Jesus) to the whole world to bring them to the salvation, which He planned since beginning of this world. Isaiah 9:1 (NJB): ‘The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on the inhabitants of a country in shadow dark as death light has blazed forth.’ How we approach the light of Jesus is amazing as the whole world is in darkness and our good Lord allow us to meet Him in all the walks of our life. 

   A beautiful reflection on today’s Feast by St Sophronius.‘This, then, is our feast, and we join in procession with lighted candles to reveal the light that has shone upon us and the glory that is yet to come to us through him. So let us hasten all together to meet our God. The true light has come, the light that enlightens every man who is born into this world. Let all of us, my brethren, be enlightened and made radiant by this light. Let all of us share in its splendour, and be so filled with it that no one remains in the darkness. Let us be shining ourselves as we go together to meet and to receive with the aged Simeon the light whose brilliance is eternal. Rejoicing with Simeon, let us sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the Father of the light, who sent the true light to dispel the darkness and to give us all a share in his splendour. Through Simeon’s eyes we too have seen the salvation of God which he prepared for all the nations and revealed as the glory of the new Israel, which is ourselves. As Simeon was released from the bonds of this life when he had seen Christ, so we too were at once freed from our old state of sinfulness.’ Saint Sophronius, bishop. 

  God loves the world so much that He sacrificed His only Son on the Cross for our salvation. Jesus gave us his life by shedding his own blood for us as a libation to establish the New Everlasting Covenant forever. Heavenly Father has been pleased with this sacrifice because it ensures that we shall all live eternally. Today, at the start of Holy Mass, the priest blessed the candles as part of the feast.  John 3:16–17 (NJB): For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.

Daily Word of God

 

Daily Word On 31st Jan 2024

Jesus is the Living Bread came down from Heaven

John 6:48–51 (NJB): I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they are dead; 50 but this is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’ 

Jesus is the bread of life, he gives his flesh which is came down from Heaven. Our fathers are ate manna in the desert, but could not sustain in the eternal life. Jesus establish this new covenant by shedding his own life and this way he renewed the old covenant and established the new covenant which is the New Everlasing Covenant. Jesus is giving this heavenly bread by shedding his blood and died for us on the Cross in Calvery for us. When we eat his Body and Blood we will not die, we will have eternal life which is his promise. This is the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the one and only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord! 

The Light and Darkness

 

Jesus is the Light in Darkness

PART XXXVI

Lord, bring us out of the darkness of this world, bring us Your light to this world.

  Jesus accepted the darkness for three days to fulfil the will of the Father to make a way of perfection for all humanity, for to establish the ever-lasting covenant through the sacrifice of his own life. Jesus told Jews about his descend to the dead in darkness. ‘Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this Temple, and three days I will raise it up. The Jews replied, ‘it has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?’ But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what he had said.’ (Jon. 2: 19-22)  

But he never wasted any time in the darkness and he gave us the eternal life as a promise from the Father by his death and resurrection. It was God’s eternal mercy towards us sinners. ‘Christ himself died once and for all our sins, the upright for the sake of the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit, he went to preach to the spirits in the prison. They refused to believe long ago, while God patiently waited to receive them, in Noah’s time when the ark was being built. In it only a few, that is eight souls, were saved though water. It is the baptism corresponding to this water which saves you now—not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience given to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has entered heaven and is at God’s right hand, with angels, ruling forces and powers subject to him.’ (1Peter. 3: 18-22) He entered the black prison of purgatory. What a love! He wants for us to save our ancestors who were imprisoned by Satan the liar. Many hearts waited for him to hear God's Word, which was both light and life for them. See how merciful He is, for He is God. He went to see all the dead and rebellious sinners who were in the depths of the darkness. Who can go to Purgatory? Except that only God is capable of doing this. He resurrected the souls from the darkness and handed them over to Heavenly Father on the third day.  God transformed the corrupted body of human nature into a glorious one by offering His own Son's life for us. This is an incredible secret that God is revealing to us. Many people today still do not realize the Truth that is contained in Jesus Christ.