“You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light…!” This wonderful reminder and admonition of St. Paul is a blessed challenge to us in Lent.
You were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. We are light in the Lord because we were joined to Jesus Christ in baptism. His life flows in us and his life should radiate out from us to illumine our world. This is the challenge for us in Lent. We examine our lives in Lent to see where we have obscured the light of Christ within us because of our sinfulness – our refusal to conform all aspects of our lives to what we know Christ expects of us as his brothers and sisters, children of the one God. As we allow the grace of Jesus Christ to free us from our sins, to diminish the control that sin has on our lives, then the light of Christ within us begins to shine more brightly so that this light is evident to others through the witness of our lives.
Right now, our nation needs the witness of serious, thoughtful, committed Christians who wish to radiate the authentic light of Jesus Christ so as to scatter the darkness of fear, prejudice, and ignorance that have become the central elements of our current presidential campaign. The current presidential campaign is a disgrace and an embarrassment to us as a nation. At a time when our nation faces serious issues that need thoughtful consideration, issues such as income inequality, wage stagnation, persistent poverty, universal access to health care, immigration, economic development, domestic and international security, we have a presidential campaign that has degenerated into a grade-school shouting match where the coarseness and vulgarity of the discourse is exceeded only by the paucity of intelligent responses to the issues we face. In our Catholic social teaching, we have a wealth of resources that can guide us in our responses to the critical issues that our nation now faces. It is our obligation to learn that tradition and apply that tradition in a thoughtful way to the issues that must be addressed.
Now is the time for all of us to allow the light of Christ to shine brightly within us.

Fr. Mark Hallinan, S.J.