All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle...be a candle

When you look at electrical things you can see that they are made of small and big wires, cheap and expensive all lined up. Until the current runs through them there will be no light. Those wires are you and me and the current is God. We have the power to let the current pass through us, use us and produce the light of the world or we can refuse to be used and allow darkness to spread. - Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Gospel text (Mk 4:21-25): Jesus also said to the crowd, «When the light comes, is it to be put under a tub or a bed? Surely it is put on a lampstand. Whatever is hidden will be disclosed, and whatever is kept secret will be brought to light. Listen then, if you have ears!».

And he also said to them, «Pay attention to what you hear. In the measure you give, so shall you receive and still more will be given to you. For to the one who produces something, more will be given, and from him who does not produce anything, even what he has will be taken away from him».

Can you imagine someone placing a lit candle under a bed? Wouldn’t that be a foolish thing to do? This is what happens when we do not place all our love and knowledge at the service of our Faith. How unnatural of us to selfishly retreat into ourselves, by limiting our life to the scope of our own personal interests! To live under the bed!

On the other hand, the Gospel is an outburst of passionate Love that wants to communicate, that needs “to say”, and that carries along a demand of personal growth, of interior maturity and service to others. «If you say: Enough!, you are dead», saint Augustine says. And saint Josemaria Escrivà also says: «O Lord: let me have temperance and restraint in everything… except in Love!».

«Listen then, if you have ears!». And He also said to them, «Pay attention to what you hear» (Mk 4:23-24). But, what does it mean “to hear”?; what are we to hear? This is the great question we have to ask ourselves. It is an attitude of sincerity towards God that demands to know what we really want to do. And to find it out we must hear: we must pay attention to the hints of God. We have to enter into a dialogue with him to put an end to the “mathematics of measure”: «In the measure you give, so shall you receive and still more will be given to you. For to the one who produces something, more will be given, and from him who does not produce anything, even what he has will be taken away from him» (Mk 4:24-25). God's accrued interests, are unpredictable and extraordinary, so as to stimulate our generosity.