In his final 2025 Daily Meditation, Father Richard Rohr invites us to reconsider a familiar phrase: “the light of the world.” While often used as a title for Jesus, Rohr highlights that Jesus famously turned the phrase back to his followers, telling them, “You are the light of the world.”

This shift suggests that light isn’t just something we look at, but rather the lens through which we see everything else.

The Messenger vs. The Message

Rohr argues that many Christians have fallen into the trap of worshipping the messenger (Jesus) while ignoring his actual message. He points out that:

• Jesus asked us many times to follow him, but never once to worship him.
• The goal of faith is not just to have “faith in Christ,” but to develop the “faith of Christ.”
• A mature spiritual life is marked by the ability to look at the world with Jesus’ eyes—a perspective that is broad, deep, and all-inclusive.

The “Forever Coming” of Christ

Drawing from the Gospel of John, the article describes the Incarnation not as a one-time historical event, but as an ongoing, evolutionary movement.

Rather than viewing the “Second Coming” as a future threat, Rohr reinterprets it as the “forever coming of Christ.” It is the constant unfolding of the Divine within creation, a promise of eternal resurrection that has been at work since the beginning of time.

A New Definition of a Christian

Ultimately, the post defines a mature Christian as someone who sees Christ in everyone and everything. This way of seeing leaves no room for:

• Fighting or exclusion
• Rejecting others
• Pious substitutes for active love

When we allow the “true light” to enlighten us, we stop seeking a provable conclusion and become a conduit for love in the world.