Reflections from the Heart – January 5, 2025

The Epiphany of the Lord
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.” Darkness has a way of creeping into our lives unnoticed, as if it was unassuming, unobtrusive and did not want to bother you in any way. However, darkness is unwelcomed, is sneaky, and wants to invade your entire joyous life with unprecedented deception, hidden unnatural passions and unruly disorderly desires. Darkness wants to cover you all over and smother you inside and out with darkness so that the True Light that has come into the world to save you cannot and will never reach you. Darkness wants nothing more than to disrupt your unending joy and bring an unhappy ending to your blessed happiness. True darkness hates pure light. Darkness would rather go into further darkness than admit it is wrong. It will never give way to the True Light, the Light of Life, the Light that has come into the world. Darkness wishes, hopes and diabolically plans and plots to obliterate any further hope you may have of being in the love and watchful, constant care of God who is eternal and wants nothing more than to watchfully care for you and love you totally today, yesterday and forever more. Darkness overshadows us. When it enters, it covers our lives like a dark, dreary, storm cloud. Life suddenly feels dreary, heavy, foggy, dense and confusing. Darkness covers any possible hope of finding a way out. Lost, we seem to lose our way even further, without any possible means to navigate through a life filled with darkened alleyways and busy, empty streets. We lose our way and any hope or desire of a possible rescue from darkness. We remain covered by it. Will we ever permit God to truly save us and allow him to touch us with the glorious resplendent light of his beloved Son, and beg him to cover us in any way he desires with his marvelous truth and everlasting way, the ways that never cease to rescue us from unending darkness into the light that never fades? Sin welcomes the darkness. It feeds upon it. It needs darkness to exist. Darkness tries to chase the True Light away. Its warmth, truth and the hope it brings. Eternally grateful that the True Light never fears being faded or extinguished by darkness. The True Light shines brightly, even brighter in the darkness. Its hope never fades away. The darkness cannot overcome the True Light for “upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory.”