I won’t look too far ahead… It’s too much for me to take.
But break it down to this next breath… This next step… This next choice is one that I can make.
So I’ll walk through this night… Stumbling blindly toward the light and do the next right thing.
And with the dawn, what comes then, when it’s clear that everything will never be the same again?
Then I’ll make the choice to hear that voice and do the next right thing.
From The Next Right Thing, written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson- Lopez
As we make our way through November and recall Saints and Souls, the Masses of Remembrance we’ve offered, and the fact that for many of us, with Thanksgiving around the corner and Christmas not far away, this special season has changed forever with the losses of those we hold dear, the world can feel plunged into the darkness of the short days and long nights around us- for many of us, it’s hard to find and hold onto the light.
In the Gospel, Jesus calls us to keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts, to tend it and spread it- and of
course that light is not in this world, it is the light of Christ that burns within us, the wisdom that is referred to in the first reading. It’s that light gives us warmth and hope as we look up and look ahead. It is not easy, and it can take a long time, but Christ awaits- and calls us to keep going, to take the next step, to do the next right thing.