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This little Light....

In the liturgy yesterday we celebrated the Solemn Feast of Epiphany, and we heard proclaimed the story of a star that guided wise men (magi) towards the infant Jesus in his home in Bethlehem.  They found him by following a light in the sky and in our adult session that followed we reflected on what is the light that leads us today toward our savior and  how do we know we have found him? The catechism teaches us that God created us to seek him, to love him with our mind,  body and soul.  God calls us through the awe and wonder of nature, through events, through people, through his Word, through his Church, he is determined to help us find him so that we can know him and love him. When we encounter him, we are changed forever.  “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Deus Caritas Est-Pope Benedict XVI)

So it is not surprising to me that today I would be still reflecting on the idea of light.  As I drove my son to school, in my mind I was humming a favorite childhood song:

“This little light of mine….I’m gonna make it shine….this little light of mine….”

Songs have an amazing capacity to teach us about our faith.  As a young girl, I imagined a glowing orb inside of me and this image is still with me today. This song affirmed for me that I was a child of God, and as such, am filled with a human dignity precisely because of the communion God desires to have with me.  No one else can be a light like I can, I am unique. And it takes many lights working together to make our world a brighter place. This song implies the theological idea that God desires a community, not just a one to one relationship.  It became a foundation to a teaching I learned later and more deeply, which is known as the greatest commandment: to love God with all I’ve got and to love my neighbor as myself.  (see Matt. 22:36-40)

Finding Jesus, the magi payed homage and left by another route. This teaching expresses the idea that once we encounter God, we are sent out along a different path.  A path that may not be the original plan to our journey; I am sent on a mission to share the message that God is present in our world, especially to those who may not yet be aware.  Believing that I am a light, I have a responsibility to shed my light on areas of sadness, oppression, fear, and isolation.  This leads to another reflection: what and where are those dark areas?  Am I aware of the brokenness that surrounds me- those who are in need, those that hunger, those that are lonely, those that are being treated unjustly?  If I believe that I am a light, am I aware of what a gift light can be to someone who is living in darkness? I must make it shine brightly; I must find those areas that need light. I do this by associating with others who have the same mission and focus on those places wherever I encounter them:  in my home, in my work, in my neighborhood, in my community. 

So much can be gleamed from such a simple tune, “this little light of mine”…also points out the humility we are called to have.  It is because I acknowledge that I am a little light that I can be in an authentic relationship with God and see others through God’s eyes.  I am a “little” light, only made brighter by my willingness to  be a friend and a voice for the foreigner,  the stranger, the alienated, the most vulnerable,  and together we help point to the One who is THE light of lights. 

“It consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend. Going beyond exterior appearances, I perceive in others an interior desire for a sign of love, of concern. (Deu Caritas Est 18)

So, today I will keep singing and praying and realizing that we are all little lights and together we are bright, as bright as the Star of Bethlehem was thousands of years ago!