Lighting up the Darkness

As I was watching the recent solar eclipse, I had a mental image of Jesus’ resurrection glory. I thought of Jesus spreading his light over a dark world and being like a corona of fire overcoming the darkness. We often talk about Jesus being the light of the world, and an eclipse is not an adequate comparison, but it helped me visualize in some small way how Jesus overcame the pervading evil in the world with his resurrection.

When we all lit our small candles from the Easter candle on Holy Saturday, it was as if we were participating in bringing Christ’s light to our sinful world. We are called to be Easter people, carrying the light of the risen Christ to our entire planet.

Christ is commissioning us to be his light in all the places where there is war, violence, racism, abuse, crime, and bloodshed. We are also called to be beacons of kindness, caring, mercy, justice, hope and peace. There is still so much need to continue Christ’s mission in the world.

We may think that our small acts of kindness don’t make that much difference or that there are too many obstacles in the way. I thought of all the volunteers in Gaza and other places of suffering, risking their lives to care for the wounded and suffering. We can’t all do that kind of work, but we can help light up our little patch of darkness here in our common home.

When I saw the movie “Cabrini” recently, I was in awe of all the obstacles she had to overcome to build homes for immigrant children, orphanages for the abandoned, and hospitals for the sick.  She would not accept a “no” from the bishop, the mayor, or even the pope.  She was determined to carry Christ’s light to every place she saw a need.

I was inspired by a resurrection view from Richard Rohr: “The resurrection is not Jesus’ private miracle; it’s the new shape of reality. It’s the new shape of the world. It’s filled with grace. It’s filled with possibility. It’s filled with newness.”  

Barbara Mayer, OSB