Today I am going focus our attention on the Epistle that Eleanor just read.  [Note: some people may find it useful to follow along in their Bibles when we go through the epistles during the homily; that is fine – indeed, it is why each pew has them]. 

St. Paul teaches that; “…it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2C 4:6). 

Do you see the depth and majesty of this fact?   As we are taught in Genesis; “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.”; then later “… God said; ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it was so.” (G1:3; 14-15)

What is this light that God brought into the world?  What did it do for the world?  For mankind?  The light is both the revelation itself and the very thing that grants the ability for it to be revealed.  The revelation itself is the logic, beauty, and love that is the world’s foundation and driving law.  [And it must be admitted that] such an underlying order is necessary for revelation: nothing intelligible can be revealed and understood if it has no logic or meaning.  Chaos cannot be revealed, only endured: there is no sense to it.  But in addition to creating the thing that would be revealed, God was also allowing for the possibility of its revelation: light was given so that man might see logic, beauty, and love and through this to know his Creator.

As an aside: this shows just how silly Dawkins, Hitchens, and all the other scientific atheists are.  They are playing a joke on themselves when they use the logic of scientism to undermine faith in God.  Without God there would be no order to creation for science to perceive; and without light it could not itself be seen.  It is as if the well fed man, sated from an excellent meal at his favorite restaurant and now reclining by a warm fire with a drink in his hand, used his satiety [that is, his comfortable fullness] as proof that there was no such thing as a farm. 

But it is not just well-fed atheists that miss the Glory of God that shines through His creation.  St. John describes this situation in his gospel; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it… That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. (J1:1-5;9-10)

It was for this reason that the Light that was created before the world itself – the very Logos Himself, the pre-eternal and unending spring of reason and understanding – [it was for this reason that this Light] became flesh.  The Son of God become man so that man might see and know Him, and through Him know His Father.  Or, as St. Paul puts it; “to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 

There is great beauty in this world; God is its center and its source.  This light is visible through the God-man Jesus Christ.  To know Christ is to know the Truth: that it is love that resonates through creation; that it is love that endures; and that when we embrace this love no hatred or darkness or despair can find its way into our lives.  We may suffer the pains of a world that [itself] groans in sin, but it cannot overcome us any more than it can the world itself.

Through Jesus Christ, even the pain and death that press down on us transform us into more pure bearers and messengers of God’s light and love: “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (2C4:8-11)  Remember the Paschal tropar: Christ trampled down death with His death.  He conquered death so that life might be renewed and perfected through His resurrection.  When we suffer and when we die, Christ is made manifest in us; and we know that “He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus” (2C4:14)

And this manifestation, this Light that illumines all, will shine not only so that we might see and know all things in truth; but so that “grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.” (2C4:15)

There is a Logic to world.  This Logic is both beautiful and the bestower of beauty; He is both love and the fount of love; He is both Sacred and the cause of sanctification; He is both Perfect and the source of all perfection.  He is our Lord, Jesus Christ.  If you come to know Him; if you accept His salvation, then all these things which He is by nature you can gain by grace.  Know Him.  Accept Him.  Become like Him.