THE LIGHT IN THE NIGHT

INTRODUCTION

The title of my thoughts for this 25th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “The Light  In The Night.”

I overheard two people on a bus the other day talking about the night. One person said she leaves the TV on all night. It gives light to get up during the night without stubbing her toes. The other lady said, “I could never do that. It would keep me awake all night. I need the dark.”

Evidently different people do different things. People have different patterns.

That conversation came back to me as I read today’s gospel.

TODAY’S GOSPEL

In today’s gospel from Luke 8:16 we have a saying of Jesus that appears in Mark 4:21-22 and Matthew 5:15. Luke refers to it again in 11:33 - when he’ll then jump to the image of the human eye. Jesus says there that we can tell a person by looking them in the eye. Where did Jesus get his lights and insights? Jesus must have done a lot of eye searching and eye looking into.  We find the image of light again in John 11:12,  when Jesus announces that he is the light of the world. We know in Matthew 5:14 right before this image of the light on the light stand, that we’re called to be light to the world as well.

Today’s gospel text and image is also found in the Egyptian Coptic Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. Here is Logia or Saying 33: 

            “Jesus said: 

             What you shall hear 

             in your ear 

             and in the other ear, 

             preach that from your housetops; 

             for no one lights a lamp 

             and puts it under a  bushel, 

             nor does one put it in a hidden place, 

             but one sets it on a lamp stand,

             so that all who come in and go out 

             may see its light.” 

[The "bushel" is a small bushel measuring cup that can be used to snuff out an oil lamp - without causing sparks and lots of smoke or too much smell into a tiny room of a house.] [1]

So this image of the light on the lamp stand in the dark is very Jesus.

Gospel commentaries explain this image very well. A regular home in Palestine for the average person - a peasant - had one room. And the lamp stand would have an oil lamp. When you came into a home the light from the outside would light up the tiny home. If you came into the house in the dark, if the oil lamp on the lamp stand was lit, you could see who and what was in the home. There was very little privacy - and animals might be in the back of the house.

Having heard that, we can grasp what Jesus is saying.

     "No one who lights a lamp 
      conceals it with a vessel 
      or sets it under a bed;

rather, one places it on a lamp stand
so that those who enter may see the light.
For there is nothing hidden 

that will not become visible,
and nothing secret that will not be known 

and come to light.”

In a small house, in a small village, everything is found out.

CONCLUSION

So what’s a lesson or a message from all this? Here are a few:

Honesty is the best policy.

“So live,” as the old saying goes, “that you wouldn’t be scared to sell your pet parrot to the town gossip.”

Remember the 3 monkeys: See No Evil; Hear No Evil; Speak No Evil.

Be grateful for walls - and privacy - and the space you have.

Go family camping in one tent every once and a while. It gets you to be grateful for back home a lot more.

When it comes to people, realize people are different. Some like to sleep in the dark; some people like some night light on.


NOTES:

[1] Joachim Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, Revised Edition,1963, page 120; Bruce Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, pages 51, 335, 205.