Escape the Darkness

Homily on the Scripture readings for Sunday, March 15th 2026

“You were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.”

Today we have many powerful scripture readings, all about light and darkness.

If you are like me, there seems to be darkness all around us. Social chaos, economic uncertainties, increasing wars at every news cycle. It seems like Satan is hell bent on making our lives a literal hell here on earth.

But for each of us, Satan can only achieve darkness over us if we let him.

We are warned about seeing things only from our human perspective in our first scripture reading today. Samuel was all impressed by outward appearances of one of Jesse’s sons, Eliab, that he was sure God would choose him. But, instead, God said to Samuel:

“Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.”

Indeed. Often our vision and our sight is captured by what is presented to us, especially in the “attention economy” within which we live. We have become easily led to see and believe whatever the media wants us to see — and to believe. Including the Darkness.

It is now time that we each take ownership of rejecting the Darkness.

Of course there will be many people, organizations and institutions in the world that promote the Darkness, empower the Darkness, and press the Darkness into every corner of life and society. But it is our choice to cooperate with it, or reject it.

St. Paul tells the Ephesians:

“Brothers and sisters: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.”

Let that sink in. As Christians, St. Paul is telling us that “we are light”. He reminds us to “live as children of light”. Our lives should be producing “every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth”.

This is only possible if we reject Darkness.

St. Paul presses the point himself as he continues:

Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness […]

“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”

We each must make that decision, to awake instead of to sleep. To decide for ourselves to arise and to separate ourselves from the dead of the Darkness. From the dead and darkness of the world. From all the temptations and allurements of the world. From the acrimony of the world with its contentions of pride, wealth, and power. From the Darkness in the world fed by lusts of personal pleasures, sloth, and ignorance.

When we make the decision to reject darkness, Christ gives us His Light.

Our Gospel acclamation today tells us:

“I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.”

It’s a conscious decision we must make to follow Jesus. If we don’t make that conscious decision to choose the light of Christ in our lives, we will succumb to the Darkness. Indeed we must continuously choose to live as the Light of Christ each day of our lives, for ourselves and for those around us; because the devil never stops in trying to seduce us all into his darkness.

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Jesus does not leave anyone abandoned to the darkness. Our Gospel reading today is a very long encounter between Jesus, a blind man, and the religious leaders of the time. Jesus demonstrates His power by healing the blind man who was blind since birth.

The religious leaders took exception to Jesus’ healing of the man because he did it on the Sabbath, a day on which no work was to be done by religious edict. They tried to convince themselves that the man really wasn’t blind to begin with, and when proved wrong they still would not acknowledge the power of Jesus as the Christ to heal him. They then interrogate and throw the cured blind man out of their presence. They persisted in their disbelief, in their Darkness, while now the blind man could see by the gift of Light that Jesus had given him.

Jesus concludes this episode of curing the blind man with this:

“I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”

By this Jesus means that He is the Light for those who are in darkness. He is ready to accept their desire to follow Him and to share His Light with them. And for those who already think that they see everything clearly, and so reject the very Son of God, that they would therefore find themselves blind, ever in Darkness, for their rejection of Jesus as the Christ.

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So, my brothers and sisters, Jesus is calling us to escape the Darkness.

To turn away from the evils of the world. To turn away from the lies and fears that constantly surround us. To reject everything that is Darkness, and instead, walk each day in the Light of Jesus Christ which He gives so generously to everyone who chooses to live in it.

Praise be to God.

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All scripture readings for today can be found here.