When I picture this in my mind, since the prayer uses the metaphor of the sower, the idea that comes to my mind is spreading little seeds, perfect pockets of the pure light of God's love and truth. That is the light we need to sow. The solution to the darkness in and around us and that is covering the entirety of the Earth like a heavy toxic gas. There may be pockets of breathable air here and there, but we, as a planet. are going down in coughing fits of hate, fear and selfishness. So I imagine seeds of God's love and truth being sown and as they burst into bloom they burn off the toxicity and darkness near them like the rising sun burns away a heavy fog.
If we are going to be sowers of such seeds we need to protect from adding to the darkness or throwing out impure seeds that have been tainted with the mold of our own motives and selfishness. It needs to be God's light. Not any old positive light will do. Let's go back to the fog analogy. You can have a hundred people driving with their headlights on, using flashlights and even spotlights, and it doesn't help with defeat the fog one bit. It might even make it harder to see. But just a short while with the light of the sun and the fog begins to melt away. Our positive light, our wisdom, our kindness, our understanding might help illuminate the darkness a little, but it will never be able to dissipate and destroy it. Only God's light can do that. So we need to keep our light out of it.
This little light of mine needs to burn only with the light of Jesus, to destroy the darkness, illuminate the solution and to shine the glory on the God of love. This is light, not words. Everything we do, from the expression on our face as we walk through Wal-Mart to the way we act and react in person and in social media to the darkness we encounter, to the subtle micro-reaction we have with someone we run into or who asks for help or shows a need or who, sick from the toxic darkness, coughs their inconsideration, their selfishness, their hate, their fear, their anger, their poison in our face. What will they see when they look at us? Will they see another broken and sick human being or will they see the loving glow of God in our eyes? That's why we must rely on grace to have this prayer fulfilled in our lives. Because we are indeed broken and still sick in ourselves, but the spirit within us is born of God and pure and immune from the the poison produced by the curse.
Today, let us let our light shine, as long as, like the moon, our light is not truly ours but a reflection of the light that has shined on us, the light of the Son. Let us not fight or struggle with the darkness, but dispel it as we move through it, by grace, unhindered, because of the light that has set us free. And let us freely and lovingly expose the world that is still sick to the light that heals and defeats the dark and foggy fumes of the curse.
Peace Prayer Of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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