Fr. Kevin's Cluttered Desk
March 26, 2023
“Lazarus come out.” Tends to invoke a powerful picture of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, but there are two things at play here. One is the physical raising of Lazarus from the dead but there is also the spiritual side. In a way every Easter is God calling each of us to “come out”, to cast off the darkness of sin and come out into the light, the light that is Christ. At Easter the Paschal Candle is carried into the church and the priest or deacon cries out, “Christ The Light” and we all respond, “Thanks be to God”. Each of us is called to walk in the light of Christ, what that might look like for each of us can be very different, but it begins with a “coming out”, a coming out into the light.
There is a story about a boy who was afraid of his shadow and so he hid in the dark all the time. It seems the boy thought that the shadow showed the truth about him. Some days he was shy and hid himself, hardly seen and other days he was huge and bigger than life itself. Some days he was very fast and some days not so fast and unless the boy was in the dark, the shadow was always there, showing off the boy’s true self. One day while sitting in the dark, the boy looked out and noticed all the shadows moving about, following all the people and the boy realized it was not the shadow the showed your true self but rather the light that showed a person’s true self. All of a sudden, the boy was no longer afraid of his shadow now he was afraid of the light, and he wanted to hide in the dark even more. But in the dark, the boy was all alone and now he began to be afraid of being alone forever. So, the boy decided he must “come out”. The light had never hurt him, the shadow had never hurt him but bumping around in the dark had caused many a bruise. Jesus said, do not be afraid, come out into the light, so that your light might shine for all to see. Come out into the light so God’s light might shine on you and the glory of God might shine through you. May we all respond to the command of “come out”, come out to a new life, a renewed life in Christ.
Peace Fr. Kevin
There is a story about a boy who was afraid of his shadow and so he hid in the dark all the time. It seems the boy thought that the shadow showed the truth about him. Some days he was shy and hid himself, hardly seen and other days he was huge and bigger than life itself. Some days he was very fast and some days not so fast and unless the boy was in the dark, the shadow was always there, showing off the boy’s true self. One day while sitting in the dark, the boy looked out and noticed all the shadows moving about, following all the people and the boy realized it was not the shadow the showed your true self but rather the light that showed a person’s true self. All of a sudden, the boy was no longer afraid of his shadow now he was afraid of the light, and he wanted to hide in the dark even more. But in the dark, the boy was all alone and now he began to be afraid of being alone forever. So, the boy decided he must “come out”. The light had never hurt him, the shadow had never hurt him but bumping around in the dark had caused many a bruise. Jesus said, do not be afraid, come out into the light, so that your light might shine for all to see. Come out into the light so God’s light might shine on you and the glory of God might shine through you. May we all respond to the command of “come out”, come out to a new life, a renewed life in Christ.
Peace Fr. Kevin
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