April 1

Light    

    As I write this morning, the sun is blazing through the windows with such brightness that it almost hurts my eyes.  Coming out of a long and quite dark winter, the sun is particularly shocking and welcoming.  It almost appears to have an essence that you can touch.  In the spiritual realm, humanity began as light.  In the new Noah movie, Adam and Eve are portrayed as light in vaguely human forms.    This is true to one tradition which says that original sin is what led Adam and Eve from primarily light to primarily matter.  Which is to say that light is in our spiritual DNA and so also are the limits to that light.  The Gospel of John tells us that in Jesus, the second Adam, God's light came into the world for all to see and experience. There is light in all of us, because we are forever linked to God in Christ.   

     We need to claim that we are of light for God in Christ is with us and in us.  There is more to all of us than meets the eye.  But there is also much which refutes our humble awareness. We are continually confronted face to face with shadows and darkness and their claims to ultimate reality.  We are tempted to agree with the darkness because it appears to be concrete, real and compelling.  Yet it is ultimately a lie.  Someone said that life in Christ, life in the light, is more real than taxes.  Why are we sometimes more attracted to darkness than to light?  Why do we focus on the worst rather than the best of a situation or in a person?  Why are we afraid when we know God and love God? 

     God's light is shining and is beaming right here, right now, today. Nothing can force you to live in the darkness without your consent.  So friends, rise up and look up, out and in to God's light which is freeing, forgiving, healing and renewing.  See yourself as a bearer of light - for you are!  And know that God's light is there for you to receive at any time and any place.  

    Here is a prayer offered by Mother Teresa:

  Dear Jesus, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go.  Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine.  Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.  Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus.  Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.   Amen.