By
Sr. Rebecca
Holy Wisdom Church
We
heard this morning from John’s Gospel “the Light shines in the darkness.”
What light? John is pointing to this Light of Christ, the same
that emanates and radiates from the very beginning of God's creation: In
the book of Genesis, chapter 1, we hear of the Spirit hovering over the
deep dark abyss, and God said: “Let there be Light.” This is not the light of
the sun but rather the mysterious Divine Light imbuing all of creation.
John is referring to this Light in introducing his Gospel: Jesus
is the very Word of God incarnate. He is the Light of Life. In him
and through him God dwells—or, more literally, the text says that in Him God
has pitched his tent in our midst. And continues to do so right up to this very
moment.
But the very goodness of God
manifested in Jesus aroused hatred from those refusing the light, and he was
put to death. We know the story and how this unexpected event threw his
disciples into a deep dark abyss of despair, sadness, and dashed hope for a
Savior of their world. The disciples
spiraled down their dark inner confusion to the point of being terrified of
being associated with Jesus. So they
enclosed themselves behind locked doors, insulating themselves, huddling
together in their misery.
What is going on within them? Figuratively, they have entombed themselves
in a death-dealing Shame. Shame, of
which the other side is Fear, leading to
a sort of recoiling within, a hiding out in the dark inside myself. Fear of what:
reprisal, rejection, and eventually death? Their shame-stricken minds hearken
back to Adam and Eve hiding themselves out of fear and shame. But closed
doors did not prevent the Risen Jesus from passing through into their midst and
offering Peace to them. Nothing they did brought about this sudden
visitation It is sheer grace, the goodness of God that brought them to new life.
Teilhard de Chardin said that this extraordinary
energy of the Risen Lord has changed the very atoms of creation—that it not
only transformed lives but also transformed the entire creation. God did
not just create in the beginning and then somehow bow out of sight but has been
creating, renewing life right up to our day.
This reminds me of an event that may
well illustrate this same Spirit creating new life in a person’s life: Some
time ago, before Holy Week, I received a voice message on my phone. It came
from a woman I will call Joan, saying:
“I am calling to get some advice as
to what I should do. My family hates me. I am an alcoholic. Last
night I heard this voice: it whispered inside me: ‘You can have another chance.
Everything is OK. The past is forgotten.’ The feeling was
wonderful. I am calling because I do not know how to make the best of it.”
Those in AA can vouch for similar experiences that
changed their lives forever. This voice from within Joan has invited her to new
life—to rise from a dead-end prison of dark bondage and also from misery, not
only to herself but also to her family and friends. In calling for help she
is doing her part—stepping out to ask for advice so she can act according to
the Life offered her. The seed has been planted. She needs now the
good soil for it to germinate.
I
recently came across another person’s experience of this new light from within:
“My practice now is to let my heart break for what I was.” He finally let go of trying to control his
life. Leonard Cohen expressed it like this: “There is a crack in everything and
that’s how the light gets in.”
The psalmist says, “Deep calls
unto deep.” The deep dark abyss
continues in our day; we hear about it every day in the news. Killings and
wounding of innocent people….many horrors flood the news. The Risen Lord
assures us that the experience of this deep dark abyss calls forth again the
Creative Spirit of God, who has been hovering over this chaos from the very
beginning of not only our earth but the entire universe and bringing forth New Life.
Later today we will return to our
24/7 daily lives with our concerns, our work, and our relationships. May
we hold in mind and heart Jesus’ word: “Abide in me.” When we give heed to this presence, this
kairos time, we allow the Light to pierce through everything we are and do...in
every NOW moment. Some part of us, though, is yet to be redeemed to see
the Light. We need the shocks of our difficulties, challenges, sometimes a
mini or maxi crisis, to wake up to this innermost reality of God's creative
life in our midst calling us to cooperate in God’s re-creating. At times
we find ourselves wrestling with our problems, with our thoughts and feelings,
and we feel our sense of powerlessness. Our tendency, like the disciples,
is to go into the insular, self-enclosing of our own little self. When we
do this, it is like trying to solve the problem within the problem. God's grace
is bigger than our limited sense of self. Grace is woven into the fabric
of our lives. A German proverb ays: “Begin to weave, and God will
give you the thread.”
We need only to trust in and cooperate with
this divine presence, this Light of Life permeating all of life, and then our
voices resounding in “Christ is Risen” will follow us into our everyday lives
and unbeknown to ourselves reverberate for the Life of the World we live in.
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