Walking in twilight

Today’s first reading (1 John 1:5-2:2) begins with one of those lovely spiraling parallelisms that St. John does so well and that captures many profound mysteries in a few simple words.

God is light,
and in him there is no darkness at all.
If we say,
“We have fellowship with him,”
while we continue to walk in darkness,
we lie and do not act in truth.
But if we walk in the light
as he is in the light,
then we have fellowship with one another,
and the Blood of his Son Jesus
cleanses us from all sin.

Sadly, there are some among us who claim to be devout Christians and yet walk in terrible moral darkness.

There are also some among us who are walking saints, whose lives are fully in the light and radiate a truly spiritual and moral light.

And there are some of us who walk in twilight: we may not be the most egregious sinners or hypocrites but neither are we the most thoroughly saintly.

We walk in grayness like the fog.

But Christ is born, the real light that enlightens every human being has come into the world, and he calls us to come out of the shadows and walk in the light.

The twilight may feel safer – not to stand out or to make waves – but the twilight is a trap: keeping us from walking fully in the light of salvation and eternal security.

Perhaps we may feel ashamed, mindful of our sins, but that is as it should be.

If we acknowledge our sins,
he is faithful and just
and will forgive our sins
and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.

If we say, “We have not sinned,”
we make him a liar,
and his word is not in us.

My children,
I am writing this to you
so that you may not commit sin.
But if anyone does sin,
we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous one.

He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only
but for those of the whole world.

No matter how dark the paths we have walked, no matter how long we may have meandered in twilight, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ reaches out to us with his bountiful mercy and calls us to walk now fully in the light: to walk towards him, to walk in him, and to walk with him.