The Light has Come…

Winter is here…with its dreary overcast days, and bone-chilling cold. The weather sometimes reflects the daily news, and we wonder if it can get any darker. Yet the word of God doesn’t seem to notice…or maybe it is more accurate to say the word of God looks beyond the gloom and doom.

This is the season when we crave light. We need it physically, because we are getting so little sun, so it’s wise to check our lamps. Replacing old bulbs with full spectrum light bulbs can help avoid SAD, the letters for “seasonal affective disorder.” In other words, the lack of light can make us moody and depressed. Why? Because when we really think of it, we are rock-bottom made of light. Yes, it’s true. Our basic ingredient is light energy taking the form of matter in our DNA and cells. Now that’s a place to start for pondering self-worth!

The human Jesus calls himself “The Light of the World.” Then, true to form, he looks at his disciples and says, “You are the light of the world…” He is not just speaking figuratively. He means it.

But first we have to believe it. We need to remember it when we’ve just made a fool of ourselves; when we have done something stupid or unkind. We need to remember it when we get into those holes we get in when we are down on ourselves. He bends down, lifts us by the chin and plants a kiss on our nose. Yes, light to light.

Thomas Merton writes of his experience in Louisville one day while he was in the city square waiting for a brother he had taken to a doctor’s appointment. All the people walking were shining like they had swallowed the sun. His comment when he wrote of this fleeting experience was, “Whatever are they going to say to me when I walk up to them and tell them…do you know you are shining like the sun?” Catherine of Siena too had a similar experience. So beautiful was the sight of light emanating from a person that she was prepared to kneel down before them. God stopped her saying, “No, Catherine, that is not me. It is but my grace working in that person.”

So in these dreary days, when your spirit feels blah…recall what dwells within you, what you yourself cannot see. Be amazed. Then live your day with a knowing little smile.

Light to light, you say.

What have you wrought in making me?

My knobby knees and greying hair?

Even more, what are you making of me…

as your graceful presence works its way in me?

No matter…

I trust the craftsman…and offer myself as your lantern.

Shine through me and make me shine despite my smoky past.