3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Circa 250 AD, it was during the persecutions by the Roman emperor Decius, seven young men were accused of following Christianity. They were given the chance to recant their faith, but chose to retire to a mountain cave to pray, where they fell asleep. Then the emperor ordered that the mouth of the cave be sealed.

Decius died in 251, and many years passed during which Christianity went from being persecuted to being the state religion of the Roman Empire. At some later time, the landowner decided to open up the sealed mouth of the cave. He opened it and found the sleepers inside. They awoke, imagining that they had slept only for one day, sent one of them to Ephesus to buy food, with instruction to be careful lest the pagans recognize and seize him. Upon arriving in the city, this person was astounded to find buildings with crosses attached; the townspeople for their part were astounded to find a man trying to spend old coins from the reign of Decius. The bishop was summoned to interview the sleepers; they told him their story, and died praising God.

My dear friends in Christ, this story of the seven sleepers gives us a mental picture of the words in our Gospel (Matthew 4: 12-17), “the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.” Because of their faith, the seven sleepers though they spent years in a sealed cave, had seen God’s light. Though they were in a cave overshadowed by death as the emperor ordered it to be sealed, light was arisen for them. What the Gospel conveys to us is God’s message of His light for those who find themselves in darkness. It means that God will never allow us to stay in darkness. God will never leave us alone in the dark though all our lives are covered by darkness. Sometimes, we complain or even blame God for the many problems we encounter day by day. We see Him as a punisher rather than as a loving God. We only see the bad side of our life and forget the many good things we have received from the goodness of God. This is being unchristian. Jesus taught us in today’s Gospel that we have to seek the light God has provided us. Instead of dwelling on our problems with hatred against God, we have to believe in faith that God will never let us down by giving us a solution to all our problems. Just like the seven sleepers, they never thought they slept for years in a dark cave when one day the seal was opened, we too cannot remember the pain of what we have been through when we see the light God has given us. We rather tell our stories of hardships and praise God for being there with us during those times. My dear friends, the years of darkness is nothing compared to a minute of seeing the light of God in our life. Now, we start searching for God’s light in our prayers and meditation as He has promised that it shall come. Amen.