Isaiah and Jesus use light as a metaphor for happiness.

Sunday, 2/5/17

In today’s readings the Bible uses light as a metaphor for brightness of spirits, but the approach of Isaiah in the first reading and of Jesus in the Gospel are different. Isaiah uses light to depict the happiness God will give you if you help the needy.

“If you shelter the oppressed and the homeless, then your light shall break for like the dawn.”

Jesus, in the Gospel uses light in a slightly different way. With him it is the gifts and the talents that God has entrusted to you to be used, not for self-satisfaction, but to brighten the lives of others, and to turn their thoughts toward God.

“Your light must shine before others that they may see your good deeds. And glorify your heavenly Fsther.”