The Didache, an ancient and revered Christian text, begins with this sentence: “Two ways there are, one of Life and one of Death, and there is a great difference between the Two Ways.” That there are choices to make in life, we all know. The question remains, which is the right choice? What is the way to “Life” and what is the way to “Death”? Our Lord makes clear to us which is which.
Following the beautiful verse in the Gospel of St. John — “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16 — we are reminded of the choice which is offered to us. The Gospel expresses it in this way: “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil” (John 3:19). A person’s life is something like a court of law. A “verdict” is a decision rendered in court based on fact, what one did and did not do.
The choice, as the Gospel of St. John so often expresses it, is between light and darkness. The light, of course, is our Lord Himself. We walk in His light when we make the decisions that He would make, when we walk in the path to light that He shows us (cf. John 3:21). But what of the darkness? So often, as poor human beings, we do not recognize darkness for what it is. The Gospel explains that to us, as well. “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed” (John 3:20). What a brilliant observation which pierces the heart of evil! Darkness is found in lies, falsehood and concealment. No wrongdoer wants the evil he has done to be known. Truth and goodness, on the other hand, are found in the full light of Christ, where there is nothing to hide.