This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This prayer has long been a favorite of mine because the more you spend time praying and mediating on this prayer, the more you find.
O God, who show the light of your truth to those who go astray, so that they may return to the right path, give all, who for the faith they profess are accounted Christians, the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ and to strive after all that does it honor. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
There are some fun Latin words in the Who phrase of the prayer. The “light” of His truth is lumen, which means the illumination or revelation of God. In the Latin form of the prayer, right path is via, which means way. In Acts 9:2, we find Saul persecuting those who follow “The Way,” referring to the people who live a way of life based on their faith of Jesus and His teaching.
The Who phrase of the prayer also offers a lot of assurance. We learn that God shows the light of His truth when someone goes astray. That someone who is lost might be a loved one, or it might even be you. Likewise, the light of truth could be anyone or anything, including you.
You may have noticed that in this prayer that so far, we have found the way and the truth, but where is the life that Jesus mentions in John 14:6? The remainder of the prayer fills in that blank.
The petition of the prayer is that Christians who profess the faith would receive the grace to reject what is contrary to Christ and strive to bring honor to His name.
I’ve been meditating on what it means to profess to be a Christian. Some time ago, someone asked me about another person and their search to find Christianity in them. They were judging this person’s spirituality on if they were nice and how often they used swear words. That got me thinking as to what it means to profess the name of Christ and to truly be a Christian. 
Being a Christian is not a way of life. We do not have a list that asks, “Do they play cards or travel on Sunday? Are they nice? Is there a religious sticker on their car? If you can check three of four boxes, they might be a Christian.”

Instead, being Christian is a life to live. Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20, “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” The Christian life is living a life that is Christ’s. We live and pray as Jesus did. We wake up in the morning and ask Jesus where He wants us to make Him known today. His mission becomes our mission: to reveal God’s love, to heal, to proclaim, and to teach. 
When you live a life that is Christ’s, it just might be you who He sends out to be the light of truth to bring others back to The Way.