Monday,
September 22, 2014
25th Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Pvr 3:27-34
Gospel: Luke 8:16-18
Jesus said to his disciples, “No one, after lighting a lamp covers it with a bowl or puts it under the bed; rather he puts it on a lampstand so that people coming in may see the light. In the same way, there is nothing hidden that shall not be uncovered; nothing kept secret that shall not be known clearly. Now, take care how well you listen, for whoever produces will be given more, but from those who do not produce, even what they seem to have will be taken away from them.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
When the then Philippine President Corazon Aquino was accused by a columnist of hiding under the bed during a coup attempt, a court battle ensued which forced the columnist to recant into saying he never meant to be literal about it. That was his safest excuse. After all, who could hide under a solid bed, unless of course he intended to compare the president to a bed bug?
Today’s Gospel talks about not hiding lamps under a bed. Lamps are never meant to be hidden, much as presidents are not elected to hide under a bed during coup attempts. “No one, after lighting a lamp covers it with a bowl or puts it under the bed”.When you cover a lamp with a bowl you deprive it of oxygen supply, and the lamp is extinguished even before it reaches under the bed.
Beds and lamps are not strange bed fellows. Our family used to have a small lamp locally called “estandar”, made of glass. Its brightness was adjustable by turning a small lever that drove the wick in and out of an aluminum tube. It ran on kerosene. Our mother would place this near the bed to keep our room at least dimly lighted throughout the night. But it was never placed too close to the bed for obvious reasons. Not even the modern lampshades running on electricity are placed too close to the bed.
The only time I saw a lamp under the bed was at a house where I celebrated Mass for the Dead. The coffin was made to sit on a bed made of iron and glass under which lamps of different colors were placed. Modern trends in funeral services have adopted lighting technology to make death less scary and render coffins less morbid to those joining in the wake. We have substantial moral lesson here regarding the relationship between death and light. When a Christian fails to shine in the darkness of sin, he is a walking dead. Cory Aquino, the President accused of hiding under the bed during a coup has long died, yet she is so alive in the good works she did to society.- Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website:www.frdan.org.
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