From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.
*Ralph Waldo Emerson
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In the 2004 movie “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” all have returned to Hogwarts for the start of a new school year. After the students are seated, Professor Dumbledore begins with announcements. He introduces new faculty members. He, then, turns to a serious topic concerning the students’ safety. He says, "On advice of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the Dementors of Azkaban, until such a time as Sirius Black [who was perceived to be a dangerous foe] is captured. The Dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds." The Dementors are frightening beings, and Dumbledore says that they will not disrupt the school. He warns, however, that "Dementors are vicious creatures. They will not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way. Therefore, I must warn each and every one of you—give them no reason to harm you. It is not in the nature of a Dementor to be forgiving. But, you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."
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Despair is alien to the Christ Light, yet, the Grace embraces despair within Itself to transform despair into Joy and Hope, into Life. I have memory of despair over many weeks, such a feeling of hopelessness that, though not suicidal, I had no apparent will to choose life. Such was the darkness in the daylight, when I would wake up through the night, I dreaded the light of the morning. I had no desire to choose death, I simply had no will to choose life. I lived through it, as it simply lifted like a dark cloud from my body one day suddenly. I know that such despair is not merely a deep depression, for I had known that earlier in my life. I have never returned to that despair, or rather it to me, thankfully. Yet, I have a vivid recall of its darkness. I do not want to forget that feeling, for it gives me gratitude for what I feel now - Love, Light, Hope....
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Meditative Prayerfulness and Contemplative Living are means to transform energies of negativity. Faith does not mean denying “the darkest of times.” Faith looks through eyes of Light to see the truth that good is inherent in evil, clarity is integral to doubt, and love shines somewhere within hate. There is an Angel inside “Satan.” “Satan” can become the manifestation of Light, which is only repressed as the Shadow - that part of ourselves we have not allowed into the light of Light, of Grace, of Presence.
We experience personal and cultural Dementors. Such negativity includes anything that brings harm and fragmentation to others and us. And, in Prayerfulness and Silence, we experience this dark side arise, manifesting subtleties of harmfulness and selfishness we would not have seen without the ego being disarmed by the caress of the Quiet.
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The "Pharisee" functions as an archetype in the Gospels - despite the Christian antagonism toward Jewish faith having shaped its presentation of that faith and the Pharisees. The "Pharisee" is a chief opponent of Jesus, and the plight of the "Pharisee" is in denying the darkness that captivated his attention, a darkness that could not see itself as darkness and, so, could not see the Light. Still, one Pharisee, Nicodemus, realizing the Light of Christ, came to Jesus in the dark of night (St. John 4.1ff) - the dark of night symbolic of the darkness he lived in. Later, Nicodemus sought, before his colleagues, to defend the right of Jesus to a fair trial (St. John 7.45ff). He assisted Joseph of Arimethea in taking the body of Jesus off the cross and in the burial (St. John 19.48ff). Nicodemus brought the ointment to apply to the body. Nicodemus is a sign of the potential transformation of darkness by Light into light-in-Light, the conversion of negativity into positivity, harmfulness into helpfulness, religiosity into spirtuality, and exclusion into inclusion.
Judas, through betraying Christ, manifested the darkness that provided the context for the Light of Christ to show its Love. Light arises out of darkness, for its potential is already in darkness. Darkness and light are part of the one Good Creation: For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 4.6, ESV). The passage does not read, “Let light replace darkness,” or “Let darkness be destroyed that light may shine.” No, “Let light shine out of darkness.”
So, look deeply into the darkness. See the Sun and Moon and all the Stars, see a million Galaxies and more, in the blackness of a cloudy night. Faith says, as Elohim in Genesis 1: “let there be light.” And, amazingly, one finds that in saying this, she discovers that the Light of Grace is the Light she has within herself. She is the Light, for she is one Substance with the Light. Then, she knows that to shine the Light is simply to be truly her self as a manifestation of the Light. This gives her inestimable Meaning in life.
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For light I go directly to the Source of light, not to any of the reflections.
