Reconnecting with the Light
We are now at the third in this series on reconnecting. So far we have looked at how we can begin to reconnect with the earth by realizing again our interconnectedness to all living beings and the earth itself; we have been challenged to see ourselves as more than simply male or female and to begin to see God as more than we might have ever imagined; we have been challenged to think of ourselves as more than creations made by God but actually have something of God in us; this causes us to pause and consider the sacredness of all life and how encountering another we are encountering God. Secondly, we have been encouraged to rediscover the path of compassion by finding the courage to see, feel and act compassionately towards all people coming to understand that compassion is a responsibility that brings blessing rather than a duty or burden to be fulfilled.
Today we are going to focus on reconnecting with the Light. In our previous explorations of the Celtic tradition of the Christian path, we learned about the importance of Light. The Apostle John begins his gospel with words about Light by reminding us that the Light that enlightens every person had come into the world and – of course – that Light is the physical presence of God in the person we know as Jesus Christ. But more than this, the Celts believed that this Light is at the heart of every newborn child and that it is at the heart of life itself.
The presence of Light in the world and our celebration of that Light is something of which we need to regain consciousness in this journey of reconnection. St. Columba, the 6th century spiritual leader of the Iona Community, used to go to a place on Iona that has come to be known as the Machair. It is the place where the rock of St. Columba is found. It is the place where Columba would go by himself every evening for a time of prayer. There he would pray until the sun dipped into the ocean. Columba celebrated the Light as the presence of God in the world and for him it was important to not only greet the rising of the sun but to acknowledge its setting as each reminded him of the presence of the eternal Light of God in his life and the life of the world. Every place and every time when Light breaks through was seen as a glimpse of heaven. The presence of Light reminds us that the threshold between heaven and earth is nearer than we think. Even though we understand so much more about our sun and our solar system and the galaxy itself, it still does not diminish the deeper meaning that the presence of Light brings.
Light allows us to have vision. Its presence allows us to see the world clearly and with its presence we can discover the wisdom that God seeks to give us to guide us on our journey. We know that even beyond our sun and our solar system, there is the presence of light that pulsates from sources too far to imagine. Behind all of this light stands the Light that emanates from the ultimate source of all Light – for us we know that Light as God. It is the source of all life and without it, there would be no life.
John Scotus Eriugena was a theologian in 9th century Scotland who said that the Greek word for God which is theos derives from the Greek verb theo which means to run or flow. For John God is the Light that flows through all things; it is like a subterranean river running deep in the folds of the universe. Kenneth White, a 20th century Scottish poet speaks of this river at the heart of all things as the “glow-flow”. White says that we are called by God to not just look at the flow or analyze it, but that we are to understand that we are part of it and dive more deeply into it.
John Scotus goes on to teach us that the Light of God is the Essence of all things. He believed that everything should be regarded as a revealing of the Divine – a theophany. So often we just consider the coming of the Wise Men at Christmas as an epiphany which it is but stop there and do not see the wider way in which everything in the world can be a revealing of God and God’s plans for us and this world. To realize that the Divine is present in every created being brings us closer to reconnecting with the divine light that is at the heart of life.
George MacLeod, the founder of the modern day Iona Community, said “matter matters”. By that he meant that at the heart of the physical is the spiritual. The incarnation of God through union with Mary is for MacLeod the sign that spirit and matter – physical and spiritual – are to be seen as connected. What we do to the world around us - whether it be a relationship between two people, our interaction with the earth or its creatures, how we handle the resources at our disposal, how we interact in the wider community in our neighbourhood, town, province or country or even how we interact with those in the wider world of which we are a part, we need to see that the Light of God is present in everything. This recognition in and of itself will do much to inform our actions and reactions to the world in which we live.
The challenge for us as we seek to reconnect with the Light is to find the places that enable us to bring into focus the Light of God at the heart of our life, the life of others and of life itself. The challenge is to recognize that we have a sibling relationship with everything and everyone that exists and that the Light we glimpse in the creation around us and the people we encounter is the Light that is also within us. We are bearers of this Light that is God and this Light that is at heart of our being is there for one another and the world. This Light is a pure gift of God given to us to shine in the world.
One final thought before I close. There is a relationship between Light and reconciliation. There is an essential link between growing in an awareness of the Light that has been showered on all things and the work of coming back into relationship with all things. To be truly reconciled is to see the Light at the heart of the other.
But as we come to see the Light we are never to forget that the Light is untameable and unnameable. We are to remember that we are messengers of a Light that preceded us – from which we and all things have come – as well as a Light that will continue to flow long after us. To reconnect to that Light – in our individual lives, families, communities and religious traditions – will again be to bear blessing to the world.
We are invited to pay attention, to see the Light that is at the heart of this moment and every moment, to know that we are full of Light and can shine. We are to love the Light and keep giving ourselves to it.
Mary Oliver, a 20th century poet expressed it this way:
When it’s over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms……. I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
(Newell, pg. 42)
AMEN