Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Gospel Text:(JN 3:16-21)

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

St. John reminds us that Jesus did not come to condemn but to save. And while God’s love is dependent neither on our reception of it nor on our recognition of him as the giver, we are still called to recognize his presence in our daily lives.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16)

This is the whole gospel in a nutshell.

This love is not abstract or mawkishly sentimental.  This costly love would cost everything, even death on a cross.  

It is now for us to go and learn it.