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'Twilight over a Field'
The late Catholic Contemplative, Basil Pennington, who wrote the seminal book Centering Prayer, therein shared of a happening a colleague told him -
His little niece used to go to Mass each Sunday with her mother and father, brothers and sisters. As a little one, she was full of questions, and her mother sought to find answers that would satisfy the little inquirer and help her grow in her faith.
The little girl pointed up to the stained-glass windows with their many saintly figures and asked: "Who are they?" "They are the saints," her mother replied.
Some time later, when the child was in the nursery school, Sister asked, "Who are the saints?" A little hand shot up. "Well," said Sister, "who are the saints?" With excited pride the little one responded, "They are the ones who let God's light shine through."
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Jesus' early followers formed an egalitarian community. Later, the institutional church began a hierarchy of saints as highly-evolved, deceased men and women. The letters of the Christian scriptures, in contrast, address all in the community as "saints," or "holy ones."
Jesus speaks of all his followers being, as the little girl says, "ones who let God's light shine through." The Gospel of Matthew 5.14-15 (NLT) -
You are the light of the world - like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.
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Jean Huston, in A Passion for the Possible, shows how practical being a means of the Light is -
Reconnection to the Source does not have to be a mysterious process. Let me give you an everyday example. Recently I had to renew and update the access codes on the receiver of my home satellite dish. If I had not installed new codes, the hundreds of television stations moving through the airwaves would be blocked, and I would see only seven channels.
Each of us has access codes to the many stations of our being. Our tendency is to forget to update them and to tune ourselves day after day to the same old programs. And yet the reality waves that move through us are filled with extraordinary stories and ideas, even connection to the ultimate Program, the greatest show in the universe. When we renew our access codes, the static clears, we get messages from the Source, and we are returned and coded for the life we are meant to live.
Huston refers to the Source. Jesus did, likewise. Ending the above scripture, he points to the Source by "your Father in heaven," or, "your heavenly Father." The verse, Matthew 5.14-15 (NLT), reads -
In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Here, he appears to shift from our being a light to good deeds being the light. The two always go together. A being of the Light will manifest actions of the Light. If we are attuned to the Light, we will evidence that attunement. The Gospel of Matthew 6.46 -
So why do you keep calling me "Lord, Lord!" when you don't do what I say?
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We do not live in and manifest the Light to receive praise from others. We may or may not receive recognition. If we do, we are grateful - no need for false humility. If we do not, we are thankful.
Hence, this being is humble. She is yielded to the Source. She is turned toward the Light to reflect the Sacred away from herself.
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Likewise, yielded to the Truth means a being of Light remains receptive to ever-fresh ways of manifesting the Light. The late Zen Buddhist teacher, Katherine Thanas, says, in The Truth of This Life, "We are always getting hooked by something." We easily get hooked by projecting the past onto the present. So, we assume how the Light will use us based on that past. Yet, we none know. We need to remain completely and freshly open to not-knowing how Spirit will use us now. Aptly did Thanas call the chapter the above words appear in, "Set Ourselves to Zero." Then, while attuned to the Light, we are ever-open to potentials and possibilities we have not experienced before. And we trust, if we are available to Life, Life responds to our readiness. We are always, then, moving from that zero, for we have no idea what good deeds we will do to manifest the Light.
Possibly, it would help us to awaken each morning and say a prayer, something like, "Okay, here I am. I am here for how You wish to use me today. Only give me the grace to follow." Why, "Only give me grace to follow"? The sacred summons arises from the heart; hence, the enablement comes through the heart, from the Source.
An early Christian writer spoke of divine enablement. In I Thessalonians 5.23 (NLT), he writes of the "God of Peace" keeping us completely - spirit, soul, body - holy. He follows this with, in 5.24 -
The One who calls you is faithful, that One will do it.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2020
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
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