One Small Light

Vigil light
Originally uploaded by Lawrence OP

Do we think we are too weak to make a difference? Too weak to change ourselves? We are most certainly very weak, but the good Lord knows our limits. He knows our very smallness. So He has made it unnecessary for us to need great strength to continue our struggle along the little way. Sometimes it is only very small things that we are able to do.

Even in our weakness, we can choose to give thanks to our God during times of adversity and even to accept all that happens to us as passing through His good hands. We choose to find joy in Him despite the darkness that surrounds, despite the suffering we see and experience. We do not deny the pain, sorrow, the darkness that can sometimes seem to be closing in, but we choose to turn our face to bask in His shining light. What power there is in that small reflection from our faces shining in the darkness! Just as the small candles at Easter Vigil fill the church as from one initial flame we pass the light from candle to candle until the entire sanctuary is glowing!

So many small and simple things are not very easy to live out when it is ourselves who must do them. Christ's kingship in our own hearts and over the entire world would solve everything, but the Lord has placed us here right now and in this time and place. So we continue the battle against darkness and evil, fighting the good fight day by day, one small choice at a time, with unceasing prayer.

We continue to turn our face to Him, allowing His light to illuminate the world around us, doing our part to protect that light. We continue to stand side by side with our brothers and sisters in Christ, helping to keep each other's candles lit should a wind extinguish one. Strengthening each other, encouraging each other, loving each other. Rejoicing together in the very little things that keep us close to God.

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Darkness into Light

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16

If He can turn darkness into light, does that also mean that He can turn the darkness in my own life into light? Not only will He shine a little beacon of hope into the darkness, but He will recreate that darkness as light. He can take the sorrow and pain, the evil that befalls me and turn it into light that glorifies Him. He can use it for my sanctification, for the sanctification of others. Although it may not be a cause of earthly joy, the light He creates out of the darkness is always a cause for our eternal joy when we allow it to be.

How can such a wondrous thing happen? Why would He make such a miracle just for me, for you? Because He is your Creator and He is in love with you! For Him it is as easy and natural a result of His love for us as a mother turning on the light and smoothing out the covers on the bed as she tucks in her child.

We must remember to open our eyes when we would rather shut them in fear against the darkness, to place our hand within His, and to allow Him to lead us on the unfamiliar path. We don’t have to know anything, just trust. Just trust that He loves us. Trust that He is leading us. Trust and believe that He will not forsake us.

Confession Cures

We go to Confession and lay before our Beloved Creator the ugly sins hidden within, the sins He has seen all along and yet called us “precious in His sight.” We come before Him in the person of the priest, as though before a physician to whom we are pointing out our ills and wounds. We kneel before our Savior’s representative, contrite for our own personal contribution to Christ’s suffering and death and acknowledging that though the world may see these sins as trivial flaws, and perhaps we once also looked on them that way, we now recognize them as substantial obstacles that separate us from our Beloved.

We have seen with our eyes, our hearts, and souls and experienced in our own lives the evil effects of sin. We feel the weight and burden of guilt and contrition as we approach the Just Judge. Guilt is good insofar as it brings us to our knees before Him, especially before Him in this sacrament of reconciliation. In this holy and most precious sacrament, we stand at the foot of the cross, beneath this blood and water of His love and mercy issuing forth from His beloved side. His forgiveness and grace wash through us, cleansing our soul.

How often do we stand beneath that renewing downpour, unaware of the miracle of grace that is occurring? How often do our arms continue to embrace guilt, bitterness, unforgiveness of ourselves and others? As we tightly clutch these burdens, with our eyes turned downward and inward upon ourselves and our misery, we don’t even realize what we are missing.

If we would only throw back our head, raise our arms in praising and glorifying Him, see Him on the Cross and the awesome gift He is showering upon us. The down pouring of His love and mercy we thus allow to wash away the guilt, wash away the pain, the bitterness, the obstacles that separate us from Him. It washes away the heavy burdens that weigh us down and prevent us from running headlong to throw ourselves into His arms. Their very weight slows us, they impede our vision and we stumble, wander from the path, for our eyes are not able to follow Him over the pile of burdens we carry in our arms.

Open wide! Open wide your arms! Leave the confessional with empty arms, having given all to Christ. Come forth with eyes and arms raised forth in praise and gratitude for the gracious and wholly undeserved gift given to you so freely out of the purest love.

Accept the gift He gives, a gift that can only be accepted into open and empty hands. Accept His love; accept His mercy; accept His soul.

Too Small?

"If you think you are too small to make a difference,

try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito." African Proverb

From Selected Prayers & African Proverbs

published by Missionaries of Africa.

Soul of My Soul

In our lives we choose either to walk alone, or to invite Christ to walk with us. He wants to keep company with us along our way but He is a perfect gentleman and will not go where He is not invited. Once He is invited, He is our constant help. We may not at first be aware that His help is with us constantly. He offers us an arm to lean on for support, a shoulder to cry on, a gentle nudge to correct our course.

When we grow weak, our loving Father leans down toward us to pick us up in His own arms and to carry us. So often we are like a little child, struggling against our Father as He tries to pick us up. Even in His arms we lean and struggle to grasp at the shiny but empty temptations of the world. In His arms we learn to depend less upon our personal strength as He imbues us with His own strength.

More wondrous though, is when He is no longer walking beside us, and no longer carrying us in His arms, but truly becomes living to us as “soul of our soul.” Although dwelling within us from our baptism, His Holy Sprit enters more deeply into our soul, into our bodies, as we let go of all the things we clutch onto – pride, un-forgiveness, self-hatred, selfishness, sorrow, bitterness, greed. As we let go and release every attachment, we permit the Holy Spirit to flow into our very being and finish the job of pushing out all that is not Him, until more and more the Holy Spirit inhabits us. It becomes Christ’s hands changing the diaper, Christ’s mouth speaking encouragement, Christ’s eyes looking at the retarded man, Christ’s heart loving. The more He inhabits our soul, the more He pushes out these extraneous parts and replaces Himself into us. It is such a beautiful gift, such an awesome, humbling thought. That our Creator would enter into such an intimate relationship with His created….Alleluia….

Little Things

St Francis de Paul said: “Even the smallest actions are important, when done well. Indeed, a small action performed with the desire to please God is more pleasing to Him and gives Him greater glory than an important work done with less fervor. If we wish to advance in union with God, we must try particularly hard to perform well the easy little duties which come our way at all hours of the day.”

Those easy little duties. I suppose that would be making my bed, cleaning up the dishes in the sink, being on time for an appointment, working at my job, reading to my child, calling my mother, paying a bill, driving to the store, waiting in line patiently. To think that all these things that we MUST do are ways that we can advance in union with God. We don’t need to go out looking for work to do to purify ourselves; He has already given us ample opportunities each day. We just have to learn to look for them, to recognize them, to see them for the gifts that they can be to us. We may not have “important work” that we do, but we can make anything we do important work towards our sanctification by our attitude, intention, and attention in doing it. Those easy little duties are our ladder to heaven and will be the jewels in our crowns…