Many of us call ourselves Christians, but continue to live like pagans or children of perdition, for that is what we were before calling ourselves believ¬ers. God stirs in our hearts a longing for Him, but the forces of the world, our unspiritual nature and evil influences take us back into darkness. We fall for these believing in a delusion that they are normal.

There are many people who live by pride, avarice and the craving for power, and think they are virtuous simply because these sins in modern society bear the mark of respectability. The respectable sins are the most disgusting and destructive, for the Lord said that they make us like “whitened sepulchers, outside clean, inside full of dead men’s bones”.

God’s love does not wait for us to find our way back to a Him, instead He sends His Son into the temple of our hearts. He comes down into the darkest part of our lives. The areas that are struggling to find illumination in our difficult familial relationships. It is there He pitches His dwelling place. He is presented in the Temple; the event we remember today.

In the Gospel proclamation we are told that the Jewish people were looking forward to God’s visitation, to restore His rule. The birth of our Lord brings their hopes to bear fruit. Like Simeon we too must see the light of salvation that the Lord brings: as He enters the in¬ner sanctuary of our hearts. The first reading says there is no point knowing the Lord intellectually. We need to allow Him to live in us, so that we could begin to live like Him. His Presence could transfer our souls from darkness to light; the darkness that is in camouflage in most of us, bringing sin and chaos. Sometimes we may think we are in the light, when in fact we may be in the realm of darkness. The reading suggests doing random checks. Do I hate, become venge¬ful, or judgmental of another, if so, it could reveal my immersion in darkness. Thankfully, we can surrender the truth of our hearts to the Light and have the darkness depart.

Prayer: Abba Father, reveal the still dark areas within me. May it be the beginning of making the darkness depart, through Christ the Lord. Amen