“…to be in light is painful, Darkness is comfortable to us..”
It is an approximate translation of some lines from an Indian poem.
We reduce the power of lights, or light a candle on the table…
we call it Romantic.
We know people enjoying their conversations and also some drinks in the dimmed corners of Bar. Yes…we love darkness at least some hours of our life…
Today we celebrate the liturgy with lightened candles… The presentation of Jesus in the temple is related much to the light aspect. There can be some reasons for that. Jesus was the expected Messiah, who brought light to the world in a special manner. With analysing mind may find that, all the great Christian celebrations are related to Jesus, the Light factor.
The birth of Jesus as Christmas is nothing but simply the Christianised celebration of pagan Sun- God celebration: a feast related to light.
We sing “lumen Christi” in the eve of Easter. The candle represents Jesus Christ. As the candle is lighted, our Christian hearts are also delighted on this recurring but special celebration.
Also a catholic life starts with this light-factor. During the baptism the candle is lighted from the Easter candle. A significant thought on Christian faith and light is emphasized here again.
Also our churches are having the perpetual lamp on the side of Altar. It is representing not only the divine presence in the church, but also recalls our Christian call to be light to the world.
All these affirm, Divinity is related to light. It has roots in the Old Testament. Moses led his people through the desert and YHWH was accompanying them as a column of light. We understand Moses too gets this divinity as he was in prayerful contact with YHWH. And when Moses comes down to the people, the people couldn’t face him as his light was shining… says the scripture.
But we see as Moses was absent from the community for some period, the people are sinking and searching for darkness. They accept now the darkness as their “light”. So they worship the golden calf.
This is the history of Israelites… remaining in the Divine Light for a certain period and embracing darkness at the next level.
And it provoked the old man Simeon to say open at the presentation of Jesus in the temple. He is now ready even to die. Because he feels his life is fulfilled now after seeing and embracing the LIGHT of GOD, Jesus in person. The old but pious widow Hanna too affirms it with her presence.
The people of Israel are a symbol, for all the humanity.
It is very difficult sometimes to follow the light, even if we are fully aware of a matter. To follow the divine light means, to be fearless.
One is fearless, when the life is fixed in certain positive aims. Here we see the best examples of Simeon and Hanna.
Their life had certain aims and these were related with God and salvation.
Simeon and Hanna may be too extreme examples for us. We may not have that much courage to follow Christ in that extreme way.
The reason may is our lives have various aims. And God may be one among them in the priority.
Christ affirms he is the light of the world.
And it is reaffirmed today. Our Christian life is to accept his light in to our lives.
A simple story regarding it:
Once a Zen Guru asked 2 of his young followers:
“Fill your small rooms with something special.
I will visit you in 10 minutes…”.
Both of the followers went back and started thinking…
As the surroundings gave them no concentration they closed their rooms and started thinking for a special idea. The time passed….
As it was told, the Zen Guru knocked at the doors of the first one. He asked, “Any ideas?”…after a silence, the first one relied, “no…master. I have nothing to fill my room”… The master smiled and left the room.
He visited the second one and asked the same. He answered yes and opened the door and windows of his room. Then the room was filled with light and fresh air. The voice of playing kids and the singing birds were heard….
Along with the room, the face of the Master was pleasant and appreciated his second follower.
Many of us are like the first follower. We don’t realize the divinity near to us. Some times we take them as a disturbance to our prayers and meditation.
We seek for other new ideas and feel disguised in this search.
Jesus says, “I am the light”. He is present in many forms in our surroundings, in many faces, in many human being.
Let us try to find his presence and his light, as the Simeon and Hanna.
Let this feast help us in this growth! Amen.
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Fr Thomas Kalathil
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