I Am the Light of the World
That’s what Jesus told us and He meant it on every level. The Gospel of John begins “What has come into being in Him was life, life that was the light of men;” (Jn 1:4) John is so sublime that we cannot merely read the words, but pause and ask, “What does John mean?”
Many recent scientific discoveries help us ponder this mystery. The Shroud of Turin has been reverenced for centuries as the burial cloth of Jesus. Over the years scientists have tried to disprove that it is the face of Christ on the cloth, but the more the cloth is studied, the more information we learn that points to its authenticity. Those who have studied the Shroud have come to the conclusion that the image could only have been made with an extremely powerful laser, like a burst of intense light coming through the fabric. This technology did not exist before modern times.
“I Am the light of the world.” Creation itself came into being through Him when “God said, ‘Let there be light’” (Gn 1:3). Even astronomers are coalescing around the Big Bang Theory to explain how the universe was formed; from a single point came light and energy. In the medical research field, scientists have now video recorded a burst of light at the moment of conception. This light is necessary for life to begin.
When Jesus says that He is the light of the world, He reminds us of what happened in Bethlehem. When it was time for Mary to give birth, She felt an intensifying presence of joy. At the moment of Jesus’s birth, Mary went into an ecstasy of Joy so profound and intense that only the Immaculata Herself could have survived it. In a flash of radiant light Messiah was born. John refers to this light when he says the “light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it” (Jn 1:5) This is the cause of our rejoicing at Christmas.
Each week of Advent the light increases as we light another candle: the candle of hope, the candle of peace, the candle of joy, and today, the fourth candle representing love. It is at the end of this week that we will meet Love Himself. We are invited to prepare a manger in our hearts for Him to dwell and so receive the Light of the world.
References:
https://www.newgeology.us/presentation24.html
https://www.lifesitenews.com/pulse/scientists-say-life-begins-at-conception-with-a-flash-of-light/
