I came into the world as light…not to condemn the world but to save the world. God created the human person with what is referred to as a capacity for God (capax dei). It is a quality that is unique to us human beings, and it enables us to transcend ourselves and reach out to God because we were created for God. It is because of this quality that we are able to hear the voice of God and respond accordingly. But we were also created with free will, that capacity that enables us to make a choice. It is a quality that should help us to respond accordingly the voice of God that speaks to us from the very depths of our hearts. However, our free will sometimes tend to work against us in the sense that we choose to refuse to listen to God’s voice. It is this situation in which we find ourselves that Jesus is addressing in the gospel passage for today.
Jesus comes to us as the light. He comes to us as God’s plan aimed at helping us discern God’s voice in a world in which many voices compete for our attention. Jesus comes to remind us of who we are, that we are created to listen only to God’s voice. But Jesus does not force us to listen to God’s voice. And when we fail to listen to God’s voice, we cannot be able to live a full life as creatures with the capacity for God (with the capacity to love and be loved, show kindness, empathize). It is this failure of ours to actualize our potential that becomes our condemnation. We are condemned when we live lives that are not proper to our nature: when we refuse to love and be loved, when we refuse to forgive, when we refuse to show kindness, and when we refuse to show empathy.