Faith Above Fear

  As the Church marks the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Abbot Marion Nguyen reflects on "The grit of light: When mercy displaces darkness." When Jesus tells his disciples, “You are the light of the world,” the words can sound reassuring, even flattering. In our time, light is often heard as self-expression, personal fulfillment, or the quiet glow of interior authenticity. But Isaiah disrupts that comfort immediately. For him, light has grit. It shines when bread is shared with the hungry, when the homeless are welcomed, when oppression, accusation, and despair are removed. Light is not discovered by looking inward; it appears when darkness is actively pushed back. This helps us hear Jesus more clearly. His words about light follow immediately after the Beatitudes, which describe the poor, the meek, the persecuted—descriptions that ultimately point to Jesus himself. To be light, then, is not to transcend suffering but to move toward it, to share in the blessedness of those wh...