There is an unequivocal statement by Jesus in chapter nine of the Fourth Gospel: "I am the light."

The identity of Jesus is no small issue.  It was prominent in early Christianity (central, in fact!).  It is no less critical today.

Jesus does not merely give light as as a wisdom teacher would.  He does this and much more.  Since he is the light, his self-identity reinforces what was begun in the opening Prologue of this Gospel, "And the Word was God."  In our creed recited every Sunday, we declare in solemn prayer that Jesus is "Light from Light; true God from true God...One in Being with the Father."  This theological language puts into declarative sentences what the story of the cure of the man born blind says in narrative.  Jesus can bring this man - who is a symbol of us all - from darkness to sight on the physical level as a sign that he will bring those who accept him from the darkness of sin and ignorance to the light of divine love, goodness and insight on a spiritual plane.

The movement from blindness to sight, from darkness to light, is celebrated sacramentally and ritually today with those who are to be initiated into the Church at Easter.  For those of us already baptized, we are encouraged to support these elect by our prayers and by our own commitment to accepting Jesus as our Light.  This ownership of Christ as our Light, is not meant to be cerebral only.  It is a truth to be lived!  We live the truth, as John will have Jesus say later in this Gospel, by "loving one another" even as Christ loves us.

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