Awaken to the Light

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, March 15th, 2026:
Fourth Sunday of Lent

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Ephesians
5.8-14

Brothers and sisters: Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light — for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it is said, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

The power of light never ceases to amaze me.  Even a small sliver of light shines brightly in the dark. 

I have a sunrise alarm clock.  In a nutshell, it aims to mimic the sunrise, allowing the gradual light to gently and naturally awaken you in the morning instead of the harsh BEEP BEEP BEEP of a traditional alarm clock.  Full disclosure: there is a  backup alarm that sounds when the “sun” has fully risen, in the event that you aren’t awake yet.

I was skeptical of this alarm clock’s claim, but I was pleasantly surprised that after a couple of weeks of using it, I was waking up to the “sun”. Light is that powerful. No wonder scripture uses the image of light when speaking of Jesus.  In encountering Christ’s light, I am awoken to the One who created me.  My heart is awoken to a love that is transformative. My mind is awoken to a knowledge of the beauty, truth, and good of our God and the world He created. The Light of Christ is that powerful! 

But that’s not all. I too share in that power, and so do you!  If we count ourselves as daughters and sons of the Father, sisters and brothers of Jesus, adopted through our baptism in the Spirit, then of course we share in that power. But I can easily forget that important fact. God gave me the same power as the Son to shine light in this world and to witness God’s goodness every day in my words and actions. Sometimes I can forget that Light is there in me.  The darkness of our world can swallow me - the conflicts in relationships between peoples and nations; the senseless violence and hurt that humans can inflict on one another; the power struggles, greed, and general not-nice attitudes and actions of people who have been impacted because of all of the above. It’s dark out there. But yet even in this, there is Light. I recall a quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” 

Well, I am a single candle. And I can, and do, choose to shine the power of the Light I have been gifted to illuminate and dispel the darkness. And when I find myself in the dark and forget this power, I know there is a back-up alarm to wake me: I have a community of faith, a family in Christ, who walks this journey with me. When I can’t see the Son or feel His Light, my fellow disciples sound the alarm to awaken me to who we are called to be and what we are called to do. I must do the same for them. And together the Light gets brighter and brighter until little by little the world has awoken to the Son. 



Aurea Sadi 

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