Light Up The World

Due to the vast television coverage of last year’s campaigns for the U.S. Presidency, even the very young became familiar with the images and the rhetoric of the leading candidates. Shortly before Election Day, a cartoon appeared in which a Sunday School teacher is preparing to lecture on the “Holy Spirit.” Before beginning, he gives his class of fourth-graders the following hint on what the subject of the day will be:

He is hidden from our sight, but he fills our heart with hope. He gives us courage to face the future and the desire to do great things. Who are we talking about class?

A little girl immediately piped up: “Ross Perot?”1

The scene in today’s Gospel Lesson is a room in which the Apostles have locked themselves, fearful that Jesus’ persecutors will crucify them as well. Suddenly, the Risen Christ appears before them and offers them His peace. “Then,” John writes, “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy…