“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:2) … The Evangelist Saint Matthew uses this prophecy as the prologue to Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, when, from the house of Nazareth, he came to live in the city of Capernaum. … Jesus starts teaching in Capernaum; and the content of his magisterium is summed up in the words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:16). Indeed, to “repent” means to see “a light”! To see “a great light”! The light that comes from God. The light that is God himself. Through the Gospel, which Christ proclaims, Isaiah’s prophetic words appear: “Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined” (Is 9:1). In the darkness – a symbol of confusion, error and even death – the light suddenly shines forth, which is the Son of God himself, who has taken on human nature; he, the Word, “the true light that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). (Pope John Paul II, Homily of the Holy Mass in the parish of Santa Rita a Torbellamonaca, 22 January1984)