Escaping the darkness by accepting ‘the beauty of the light’

Fr David Howell • April 14, 2024 at 1:00 pm

“Their joy was so great that they still could not believe it” (Luke 24:41)

In Sunday’s Gospel, the Risen Jesus’s disciples do not believe in him for a strange reason: their joy is too great! 

It seems odd, but sometimes we can lack faith for this reason: we think it is all too good to be true.

I remember a friend once saying that they could not believe Jesus really knew and loved each person in the world, since it seemed too much. Another told me they didn’t want to be in debt to Jesus and so they could not accept his forgiveness.

We can reach the point of real darkness because we cannot accept the beauty of the light. We can focus on our unworthiness to the extent that we cannot see how grace gives us indestructible dignity as children of God.

This scene recalls the Transfiguration when the glory of Jesus reduced his three closest friends to fearful stupor. But Jesus does not want to be simply the source of our awe; he wants us to be united to him and his mission. 

It was no accident that Jesus brought the disciples out of their daze by asking them to serve him in a concrete way: to give him some food.

He then says that their mission has been predicted, and will be fulfilled, just as his death and resurrection were:

“So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (24:46-47).”

Jesus wants us to be part of his Resurrection, not just admire it. 

The more we serve Jesus and his mission, the more we will believe in him; the more we are personally involved in his Risen life, the less we will be tempted to remain on the fringes as a mere admirer.

And if we feel fettered by our past, Jesus will “open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures (24:45)” and explain to us that God has planned our sin and weakness into his design: his death at the hands of us sinners was made into the source of our salvation.

Photo: In this combination of two images using a long exposure, the interior of Salisbury Cathedral is illuminated by trails of candles carried by choristers during the annual ‘darkness to light’ advent procession, Salisbury, England, 1 December 2017. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images).

Fr David Howell is a priest of the Archdiocese of Southwark, who is also currently studying canon law in Rome. Read his ‘On Pilgrimage With…’ from the Catholic Herald magazine here.