"The people of darkness have seen a great light," proclaims the prophet Isaiah in this Sunday's First Reading. He's followed by the Psalmist who identifies that light as the Lord, and by St Paul who is swift to remind us that we should be united in the divine sacrifice of the Cross instead of taking sides in the human hierarchy the Church.

Light and unity are woven into these readings as common threads, and we too are woven in with them. All of humanity is brought out of the darkness of sin by the light of Jesus Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the infinite love of the Father.  Heaven isn't only a select few who decide to follow one leader instead of another.

Finally, we're also reminded is weekend that Kingdom is built up not only through our works alone, but rather our works offered up to the transformative power of God's love for all of us.  The longer version of the Gospel reading this weekend includes Matthew's account of Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John meeting Jesus and immediately deciding to follow him.

By their example, we are reminded that is our response to His call that allows God to work in us and through us for the greater glory of the Kingdom.  Most of us may not be called to quit our jobs and leave our families to do God's work, but that only means our mission field is the familiar territory of our daily lives.  That's half the battle won -- winning the other half requires that we commit to building up our faith from something we do for an hour once a week into something we truly live as we go about our daily business.