The Scripture passage at Ephesians 5:8-14 calls us sisters and brothers, and explains how once we were darkness, but now we are light. The passage calls us to live as "children of the light," for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. As members of families, how are we best able to respond to God’s call to live as children of the light?
As husbands and wives, as parents and daughters and sons, as sisters and brothers, we can live as children of the light by trying to learn what is pleasing to God. We can do this by agreeing as a family to take no part in any fruitless works of darkness.
As baptized members of the body of Christ, we also are members of God’s holy family. At baptism, we received the light of Christ, and we were directed to always keep it brightly burning. Because we have been reborn as children of the light, we can easily recognize what is light and what is darkness.
As we encounter works of darkness in our daily lives, God calls us to expose them to the light. In doing this, everything exposed to the light becomes visible, and everything that is visible becomes light.
In the Gospel story of the man born blind (John 9:1-41), Jesus heals the blind man, and he is finally able to see and recognize that Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus tells us that we, too, are the light of the world, and that we are called to let our light shine to give glory to God.
As members of families, we can affirm the works of light that we see in one another. We can mutually support each other and encourage one another to live our lives as children of the light.
