Easter 3 - Christ Light

Text: Mark 3:1-6 (see below)

The following quote came from this week's Sunday Bulletin at the Community of Saint Peter's in Cleveland, Ohio. A wonderful reflection to ponder with joy written by Gail Ramshaw. I am not sure which book this quote came from. Perhaps, one of my readers will know and leave a post for the rest of us.

"The Christian faithful believes that Christ is the light. Enacted annually at the Great Vigil of Easter, recalled in the gospel for Christmas Day, remembered each night at evening prayer, recognized in the candle at the casket, and ritualized by the candle at baptism, "Christ our Light" is our claim. It is not that Christ does away with darkness, that the baptized walk about in perpetual light. No, speech about perpetual light shining upon us is the hope of the resurrection, the promise of God's light finally victorious over death's night. But not now. Now the paschal candle is a reminder of what often seems a small flicker in the darkness that continues envelop us all. So if the world remains dark, what does the illumination of baptism actually do?

"Ambrose of Milan said it this way, 'You went, you washed, you came to the altar, you began to see what you had not seen before.' You began to see the light of Christ, yes. But you also began to see more clearly the world's darkness. For many Christians, Ambrose speaks a closer truth. We begin to see. We all come weekly to celebrate the light, to absorb more of it in our faces, to see one another shining. The blind leading the blind, we help each other grope towards the light that is God. Perhaps we finally come to recognize even God in the center of the darkness itself."

Love One Another - Brian


Beginning to See
Ambrose of Milan

"You went, you washed, you came to the altar, you began to see what you had not seen before."

Source: Sunday Bulletin, Community of Saint Peter's, Cleveland, Ohio


Mark 3:1-6

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”’ Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.