ESL

I’m so blessed today that I woke up early, and the Lord allowed me to hear the 6:45AM mass in PCJ.

In our gospel for today (Luke 8:16-18), Jesus tells us that no one lights a lamp to be placed under a bed, instead, the lamp is placed where others may see the light.

I’d like to share to you the homily of the Priest. He went to the hardware to buy a bulb. He’s no expert in electricity/electronics, so he just wants a bulb that he can use for his lampshade. He happened to buy two, one is the incandescent bulb whose light is very yellow and has high wattage requirement, and the other one is the ESL or the energy saving lamps with warm white effect.

He first tried the good old and reliable incandescent bulb that he grew up with. Turning it on, it was as bright as ever! His eyes were harmed by its brightness. And he notes that the shade of the lamp became brittle, and may be caused by the hot temperature coming from the incandescent bulb.

He then tried the ESL. It was a bit dark at first when he turned it on, however, in less than a minute, he observed that it gave the same amount of light as the incandescent bulb. He also observed that it was not as hot as the incandescent bulb.

All of us are called to be a light to the world, a light to one another. The Priest further relates that being a light, we can be like the incandescent bulb that lights up easily but unintentionally causes harm, which may ward others off . We can also be the ESL whose light is more kind, welcoming, loving, caring, and inviting for others.

I know for sure that we all want to share the light that we have from Jesus. We may have also experienced difficulty in sharing this light to others, may be because we are not aware that we could be unintentionally harming the ones whom we want to draw into the light, by the harshness of our words or actions. Our challenge is to strike a balance between righteousness and love, in order for our light to be more kind, welcoming, loving, caring, and inviting.

Buddy, that's ESL. Extra Special Love.