Et Misa Est

I sat watching the bonfire with my family. As my children were busily roasting marshmallows my mind began to wonder. A pop in the fire sent embers flying into the night sky. As I watched them rise on the breeze, my inner voice spoke up.

“Do you get the point?” came the question in my mind.

“No, Lord,” my thoughts replied. “If you have a point to make please use a sledge hammer as I am quite dense.”

Whack!

Darkness cannot exist where there is light for the light overcomes the dark. In God we have perfect light. When we reside in God we reside in a place where darkness cannot be. Darkness cannot overcome the light; it retreats from it. Darkness can only exist where once there was light if light fails to shine.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28: 19 – 20

Another pop; more embers sent skyward.

“Do you get the point?”

As Christians we are like the embers of a fire. We have been sent forth to take the light into the darkness. Even the darkest night gives way to the faintest ember. Every ember has the ability to start a new fire if it finds its way to a favorable location, a location ready to burn. A single ember, burning hot enough, has the ability of setting the world on fire.

No ember burns brighter than the fire that created it. Although thousands of embers are sent skyward, few produce other fires. This does not stop the fire from making embers. Nor does it stop the embers from burning brightly in the darkness.

Likewise, we will not be able to bring every person we meet to a saving knowledge of Jesus. That should not deter us from burning brightly with the love of God. We are called to be the embers in the night. We are called to leave the fire and bring light into the darkness. When we find that we are no longer burning brightly we can return to the fire and be filled with new life.

Et misa est – this is the dismissal the deacon uses at the end of Mass, in Latin. It means Go, you are sent. In English we say, “Go forth. The Mass is ended.” The Mass is the fire and we are the embers being sent into the night sky. We are to burn as brightly as we can and carry the light of God’s love that we received at Mass to the world. The smallest ember can set the world on fire.

So go forth little ember. Burn defiantly in the night, giving evidence that the fire still blazes, and the light has not left this world.