Remember the light

God is light!

And that is true.

 

But not all is light.

There is a Via Positiva but there is also a Via Negativa (Hildegard of Bingen)

 

How well we know!

 

Darkness abounds!

Think wintertime, when it is dark when you get up, dark when you go to work,

and dark when you come home.

 

Think of all the things that are going wrong in this world!

Authoritarianism.

Pandemics.

Toxic Individualism.

Violence.

Injustice.

Inequity.

 

The list goes on!

 

The way of sin is real.

But so is the way of grace and love.

 

Hildegard suggests that when the darkness seems overwhelming,

we have to remember.

 

Remember, remember, remember.

“I must remember,” she laments, “now is a time for remembering,

for remembering goodness.”

 

It occurs to me that we have to choose goodness,

and the Via Positiva.

 

I know the dark is affecting me.

The dark mornings, the long dark evenings

I feel sometimes like Eugene O’Neill, as if I am taking a “Long Day’s Journey into Night”

 

As if the negatives (the Via Negativa) define me and my life.

 

And so my challenge, and I think the challenge of all those who

believe in Sacred (in whatever form)

 

is to find the light!

 

To embrace the light.

 

One way to do that is to choose to make each day significant,

each day meaningful.

 

The Dalai Lama once wrote,

“Old friends pass away, new friends appear.  It is just like the days.

An old day passes, a new day arrives.

The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend

or a meaningful day.”

 

It is still dark.

I look out the window and see myself!

How depressing!

 

And yet the light will come

It will come.

And this day I will do what I can

To make the world better.

To bring light.

To help another!

 

The light does shine in the darkness

And the darkness cannot overcome it.