NOTES for Joh 8:12-20

Today’s Gospel passage begins with some of Christ’s best-known and most important words. On icons of the Savior, the Gospel in His hands is usually shown open at these very words: “I am the light of the world.” These words are unique and astonishingly precise. When we speak of enlighteners and of the spiritual and cultural leaders of nations, we say: “He brought light to the world.” But the Lord says that He Himself is the light that dispels darkness and makes good and evil distinguishable. Indeed, only in Christ’s presence do we become capable of making this distinction; only in His Body—the Church—do we receive from the Holy Spirit the gift of discernment.

And this light is not some action of God or a phenomenon accompanying His coming. It is Christ Himself. It is probably impossible to explain rationally how this can be so, yet it truly is so. What matters in the life of Christians is that only the Light of Christ gives us a life-giving experience of truth and imparts meaning to the existence of the world, to our lives, and to our deeds and actions.