Back when I was 13 or 14 I went spelunking for the first time.  It was a cold day like today.  We

entered the cave in the afternoon but emerged after dark.  We were wet and muddy and meeting the freezing cold of the outside air was breathtaking.  But I remember how, despite the cold, I was amazed when I looked up into the clear, cold sky and saw the Milky Way.  All those stars that we never see when we live near a city; I changed into dry clothes and came back out of the tent just to gaze up into the sky.

 

The people of ancient time saw all those stars on a regular basis.  There were so many stars they couldn’t begin to count or even estimate how many there were.  This is why God promises Abraham descendents as numerous as the stars in the sky; they’re countless in their time.  Part of the myth that develops over the millennium is that there is a star for every person.  Stars were thought to come and go as a person’s life; they could only keep tract of the larger ones.  The larger ones were often considered gods.  The bigger the star also reflected the more important a person was.

 

Thus the Bethlehem star was Jesus’ star.  It came to be and was so bright that people in foreign lands (from the east) would note its rising and realize someone of importance was born.  Thus the magi come searching for the newborn king.  The light of Jesus’ star was so bright that it could guide these foreigners to the place of Jesus’ birth.

 

The message here in some ways is obvious.  Jesus is so important as he is born into our world.  Jesus is a light that can guide people on the way of life.  Jesus is someone that even pagans can understand.

 

The light of Jesus is still present in our world today; not in the sky but in our midst.  It is a light that shines in the darkness; it doesn’t have to wait for the darkness to go away.  That says something important for us.  We hear often that we are the Body of Christ and we are Christ’s presence in our world.  We celebrate every time we come to Mass that Christ seeks to be one with us and to dwell in our hearts as a witness to all.  Yet most of us feel Christ can’t really shine through us because we know our faults.  Our sin and human weakness seem to always be before us when we consider Christ’s light shining through us.  But Christ’s light comes into a world of darkness.

 

For us to carry the light of Christ and to reflect it in witness to others, does not require some level of perfection in us first.  In fact it is the light that perfects us.  Regardless of one’s beliefs, almost everyone is touched by human kindness.  What characterized Jesus most was his mercy, forgiveness, and love.  We are capable of reflecting this light of Christ even though we are far from perfect.  Even though in some ways we still live in darkness, the light can still shine.

 

Children sometime sing the cute song, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”  We too have a little light that we can let shine.  As the children sing that nothing will keep them from letting their light shine, we need to remind ourselves that nothing needs to keep our light from shining either.  Let us go forth today allowing that light to shine through us that even pagans may know the presence of Christ in our midst.