Parents and teachers of young children know the song “This Little Light of Mine.” It’s a song that is easy to sing and inspirational, so it’s used worldwide in churches and schools, as a protest song, and in folk music. Who wrote it and when is somewhat unknown, but Jesus would have loved it because, as he says in today’s Gospel: “You are the light of the world … your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” Our recent popes have been talking to us a lot about being evangelists. They have become concerned that in our secular culture, we keep our religious beliefs too separate from our public lives. We keep silent about our commitment to Catholicism, and even worse, about our commitment to the Lord. We want to feel accepted in our secular worlds, and that means not looking or sounding different by admitting we belong to the Lord. We even do this in our families for fear of causing trouble. My religion is my own business, we say or think, a private matter. But this privatization of our faith just helps our culture, which shapes our consciousness, to lose more of the moral and ethical foundations it so badly needs. Where in your family, your work environment, or your city do you need to speak up about things that don’t seem loving or compassionate or fair? Do you share the good deeds you do with others in ways that invite them to do their own? Your words and deeds can bring a new perspective, a new little light, to situations where our world needs light today.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia; photo by Paolo Costa Baldi
The post February 8, Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, This Little Light: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.