Living in Minnesota, I always find the summer sun a particular grace. After our long winters it’s a short reprieve, but it makes everything here burst with beauty and lushness. In my house, however, I have mixed feelings. I love its brightness – it gives energy and joy. However, that same brightness shows the dullness of bookshelves that need dusted, floors that need swept and mopped, windows that need washing, and more. As I begin to remedy these, I also begin to notice even more dirty details – baseboards, walls, and doors that need washed, a clutter of possessions that needs sorted and discarded or donated, etc. It seems at first like the more I do, the more behind I get. I begin to look forward to the evening when its shadows will soften the imperfections.
A similar experience can happen in the spiritual life. Much like Jesus’ parable about the Sower and the Seed, the light of the Gospel provokes mixed responses. The warmth and brightness can be refreshing – Truth dispelling lies and errors, Love imbuing our life with purpose and meaning, the call to greatness inflaming our hearts with courage, relief from the forgiveness of our sins, gratitude for the love of the Lord revealed through Jesus, and hope for eternal beatitude. That same warmth, however, can expose our coldness and the need for conversion – especially the most difficult areas such as pride and arrogance, or resentment and unforgiveness. Its brightness can reveal the deeper spiritual cleansing we need to do – leaving us dissatisfied with what previously we took pride in. We may also feel more exposed. The culture sets the bar pretty low to look and feel like a good person. Christ’s bar for His disciples however is as high as heaven. We literally can’t reach it on our own. It requires humility and ongoing reliance on the Lord and communion with Him.
Today is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, both martyred in Rome around the year AD 67 under the Emperor Nero. Peter was appointed by Christ to be the rock for His whole Church. Paul was appointed by Christ to bring His Gospel to the Gentiles. Both brought the light of Christ far and wide, even into the darkest of places. While many savored the light, like summer sun after a long winter, others despised it for illuminating rooms they had kept hidden or showing the dullness of that which they formerly thought gleaming. Thus, they were killed by the Romans, but honored in memoriam by Christians.
The saints are like torchlights along the road of the disciples of Christ through history. They illuminate the path, and the way to walk it with the Lord, by the light of their own life with Him. They dispel the lie that it can’t be done and unsettle our rationalizations. G.K. Chesterton insightfully wrote, “The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult and left untried.”
Let’s pray for the grace (for ourselves and for all souls) to receive the summer light of Christ with openness, to accept the work we need to do, and to do it with the energy and joy that His sunshine brings!
© 2024 Angela M Jendro
*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!
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