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The great insight that the
Jewish scriptures share with us is a concept now called theological
reflection. This means that a person or persons look at their own
experience and try to understand what God is doing in their lives. This
week's first reading from the book of Chronicles is an excellent
example. The post-exilic Jewish community looked back over its
experience and saw the captivity and exile as punishment for its
inattention to the covenant. Similarly, Cyrus' decree restoring the
people and the temple in Jerusalem was interpreted as God's influence on
behalf of the people.
In our day we tend to look elsewhere for our interpretation of
historical events. Economics, sociology, psychology all offer
possible interpretations for personal and world events. These sciences,
as inexact as they may be, are important for the insights they can give
us into human behavior. But our faith tradition offers important
insights as well. Much of what goes wrong in our lives and in our world
is the direct result of sin. All the science in the world cannot take
away the reality that we do what we abhor and we do not do what we
know we should.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul reminds us that we have been saved
from sin by God's favor. We have done nothing to earn God's mercy, it is
His gift. In John's gospel we are reminded that the Son has come into
the world not to condemn the world but to save it. In order to
accept that salvation we need to come into the light. We need to live
our lives in the light of the gospel.
When we were young children, many of us were taught to make an
examination of conscience at the end of each day. This was, and still
is, a wonderful practice. It is a time each day when we subject our
lives to the light of the gospel. What did I do today? How did my
behaviors, responses, reactions to real life situations stand up to the
principles of the gospel? The purpose of such an examination is not to
inspire guilt, but to keep us in touch with the power of the gospel at
work in our lives.
We have been saved by God's gracious gift of Jesus. In order to reap the
benefits of salvation for ourselves and the world, we need to come into
the light of the gospel. We need to reflect each day on the light of
Christ at work in our lives.
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