Either more or less!

Luke 8:16-18

No one lights a lamp and then hides it under a vessel or puts it under a bed. No! he puts it on a lamp-stand so that those who come in may see the light. There is nothing hidden which will not be made manifest; there is nothing secret which win not be known and brought into the open. Take care, then, how you listen; for to him who has it will be given; and from him who has not there shall be taken away even what he thinks he has.

Food for thought!

Here we have three sayings of Jesus, each with its own warning for life and living.

(i) No one lights a lamp and then hides it under a vessel or puts it under a bed. No! he puts it on a lamp-stand so that those who come in may see the light.

This saying stresses the essential conspicuousness of life. Life is in its very nature something which must be seen. Where there is life there is movement. And where there is movement there is life. In all of us, there is an instinctive fear of being alive; we are afraid of showing others how live and alive we are, lest others ostricize and avoid us. And yet this is exactly what Jesus calls us to be: Be alive! Don't hide faith in Jesus. Remember St. Peter's advices: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1Pt 3:15) 

(ii) "There is nothing hidden which will not be made manifest; there is nothing secret which will not be known and brought into the open."

This one stresses the impossibility of secrecy. There are three people from whom we try hide things.

(a) Sometimes we try to hide things from ourselves. We shut our eyes to the consequences of certain actions and habits, consequences of which we are well aware. It is like a man deliberately shutting his eyes to symptoms of an illness which he knows he has. We have only to state that to see its incredible folly.

(b) Sometimes we try to hide things from our neighbour. Things have a way of coming out. The man with a secret is an unhappy man. The happy man is the man with nothing to hide. Happy is the man who can speak like that.

(c) Sometimes we try to hide things from God. But this is impossible because our God is a God of seeing, says the Bible: "Thou art a God of seeing." (Gen.16:13.)

(iii) "Take care, then, how you listen; for to him who has it will be given; and from him who has not there shall be taken away even what he thinks he has."

This lays down the universal law that the man who has will get more; and that the man who has not will lose what he has. This is just another way of saying that there is no standing still in life. All the time we are either going forward or going back; we are either getting better or getting worse; we are either getting more or getting less.

This law works in both spiritual and material things; it works in businesses and in family and even in personal affairs. It works everywhere, every day, on everyone and in everything. If we really strive after more we will get more, if we don't strive enough, we will get less. 

It is the law Jesus applied to the woman that anointed him with perfume: "So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; because she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."