Seeing the Light
Luke 9:28-36, (37-43)
Victor Frankl, the psychiatrist, writing on his experiences in a Nazi prison during the Second World War talks at one point about the effect of seeing the light from a distant farmhouse at dawn. He describes it in this way:
We were at work in a trench. The dawn was grey around us; grey was the sky above; grey the snow in the pale light of dawn; grey the rags which my fellow prisoners were clad, and grey their faces —at that moment a light was lit in a distant farmhouse, which it stood on the horizon as if painted there, in the midst of the miserable grey of the dawning morning in Bavaria.
You realize that Frankl was not just talking about a light from a farmhouse. It was a way of describing his interior struggle. He had been struggling to find reason for his suffering, his slow dying while in prison. In his last violent protest against the hopelessness of imminent death, he says:
“I sensed my spirit piecing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious “Yes” in answer to my question of the existence of ultimate purpose.” It was “Et Lux in tenebris lucet” –and the light shineth in the darkness.
(Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, Washington Square Press Inc, New York, 1963, p.63,64)
Often the only way we can describe a life changing experience is in metaphor and symbolic images like Victor Frankl uses in his description of seeing light from a distant farmhouse in the greyness of the dawn as a way of conveying the effect of a inner peak experience in the midst of his struggle for meaning.
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Light is often used in our descriptions of finding new understanding, new insights, new meaning and divine presence. The motto of St. John’s College in Winnipeg Manitoba where I studied for a few years was “In Thy Light shall we see Light”.
It is light that is used by many people in describing a near death experience. In a book called Life after Life, the author Ray Moody has conducted interviews with people who have been clinically dead for a matter of seconds, or even minutes before being resuscitated. His studies report what they say occurred when they were dead. May of these people said they had met a beam of light, a pure clear white light. What is important about seeing this light was what they felt in the encounter. The light seemed to communicate to them a feeling of total peace, love and acceptance, even though their whole life passed before them, both the good and the bad.
You don’t have to read very far into the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures to find light connected with the presence of God and the discovery of meaning of our lives at the depth of our being. At the moment of Creation God says “Let there be light” and there was light. In Exodus, the journey of people moving out of slavery in Egypt into liberation, is described as being led by a cloud by day and following a pillar of light in the darkness of the night. It was a way of describing what they were experiencing and feeling as they ventured forth into a new life. When Moses came down from the Mountain after being in the presence of God, his face shone so brightly that he had to wear a veil. He went in to a cloud on the mountain and The light of God’s presence had descended on him and he was transfigured. The experience of entering into a covenant with God was a overwhelming, mysterious, life-giving and light filled moment in the faith journey of the people of Israel. Later, in their wandering in the wilderness, the Jews were told to designate a particular holy spot in their camp as their sacred space and to call that space “The Tent of Meeting” . In the dedication of this space, it is said that the light of God, which was called the Shekinah, descended on the “Tent of Meeting” . In that space heaven and earth were brought together. Later the Shekinah was believed to have come to the temple where it was recognized as “dwelling place of God.”
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When we come to the story of the transfiguration of Jesus is it any wonder that it is described with the images of both cloud covering him and then light descending upon him so that he shone and was transfigured before his disciples? I don’t think this story is a literal description of an event that happened at a certain time in their lives. I believe that it was related to an interior struggle that the disciples had throughout their journey with Jesus as to who he really was and what they were to understand about the nature of his life. In a peak experience they were to discover the truth about Jesus. In this story they used the images of mountain, cloud and light to say that in the world that often seemed hopeless and meaningless they found in Jesus, the presence of God, and in his presence they found peace, love, acceptance and meaning. It was light in the midst of darkness and in that Light they were able to say “Yes” to the question of the ultimate purpose of their lives. Later they were to find out more. They were to discover that the Presence of God was with them through the Spirit. They were to walk in the Light.
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Now, what we are left with is how all this relates to us in these times. Where have we found “light” in our own faith journey? I think back on my life and there have been many times that I have experienced the presence of Christ and I would describe the experience as being overcome by the Light.
I can remember a number of years ago inviting one of the members of the parish in which I ministered to play the Cello during the church service on a Sunday morning. My expectations were not that great but as he began to play, and his hands worked over the frets and the bow, the most soul felt music that I think that I have ever heard engulfed the church. It became one of those instances of great ecstasy in which I was almost taken up into another world, and left me in tears along with most of the congregation that was present there that morning. What I came away with that day was the knowledge that there is beauty in the world, even though sometimes we are faced with such ugliness in the world. I will always remember that and I carry it with me to this day because it evoked in me feeling of hope. I am sure that in that experience of hope, Christ was present. For me it was light shining through the clouds that enveloped me.
I can remember a time of attending a communion service in the congregation in which everything became so real that it is difficult to explain. It wasn’t a special service, just the ordinary Sunday morning service, but as it progressed every word that was said seemed to take on new meaning almost as if it were Christ himself speaking deeply in my heart. The sun was shining through the stained glass window which also had a glorious warming effect upon the inner self. By the time we reached communion I felt the “real presence” of Christ in a way that I had not experienced before and I cannot say that I have experienced since. However, I cannot participate in any communion service, even today, when I do not think of that moment. It evokes within me faith and hope, in a world where there is much fear and doubt. Again, I could describe this moment as b eing surrounded by light.
I can think of times of great community, when I have been on week long, or even a weekend live-in situation and there has been such caring, and trust, and communication between the people that you didn’t really want it to end. I remember being on a 10 day Group Life Lab many years ago that was very intensive, and you got to a point that you could almost feeling what other people were feeling. Great creativity was unloosed in the lives of the participants. A couple days after I arrived back home from that lab a got a phone call from three other people that had been there. They had gathered together to share their what they were feeling after being home for a few days and they had an understanding of what I might be going through so they had phoned to check it out. They knew exactly what I was feeling even though we were 80 miles apart. That whole experience was a formative experience in my life. I became aware of the power of groups, and the creativity that can be unleashed, and the learning, and caring that can take place. One could say that we were bearers of the light together. That has effected so much of what I have done with my life since then. Christ was certainly present there.
I have had the privilege of being at the bedside of some one who was dying, and experiencing a peaceful death. Christ’s presence was real. What was felt, and what was said, was like a person “going home” and being welcomed by a loving parent, and other loving people. I was opened to a reality beyond this life. Having experienced that moment, I cannot look at death the same way. I carry that experience with me, and it has an influence as to how l see life. As I left that room and made my way home it was like I had been arrested by the light.
The words of the evening prayer became real:
O Lord, support us all the day long of this troublesome life, until the shadows lengthen, the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then Lord, in thy mercy, grant us safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last …
Certainly the presence of Christ in our midst is often beyond understanding but in the light of Christ’s presence, we begin to see things differently. We even see things that we didn’t see before due to blindness of some kind. In these experiences of Christ’s presence in my life I was able to come away from them walking in the Light of his presence. I gained a new perception of myself, my relationships, and the world around me. I am humbled by such experiences. They are peak experiences like the transfiguration was to the disciples. I live now with the grace that God has stirred within me – the grace to wonder and to admire and to expect the unexpected”.
“Et Lux in tenebris lucet” –and the light shineth in the darkness.
Let us pray::
Give me an open ear, O God, that I may hear Thy voice calling me to high endeavor.
Give me an open mind, O God, a mind ready to receive and to welcome such new light of knowledge as it is Thy will to reveal to me.
Give me open eyes, O God, eyes quick to discover Thine indwelling in the world which Thou hast made.
Give me open hands, O God, hands ready to share with all who are in want the blessings with which Thou hast enriched my life.
… John Baillie (1886-1960)
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