DAILY DEVOTIONAL
May 11, 2018

Why does the world seem lost in the Darkness?

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. – Matthew 17:1,2

Shekinah … the glory of the Divine presence manifested in a radiant light. Shekinah … is a rather contemplative understanding of how we are to live and how we are to behold one another. When the Holy Light is strong within us then our countenance, our words, our attitudes, our actions we become radiant. We mature into our calling to become children of the Light. In this world with so many dark and shadowed places, the Lord’s Presence within us turns our lives into candles and lanterns. The Light of God’s Presence within us cannot be contained within our inner selves … the Holy Radiance appears, and the Light of God is all the more.

Like those solar powered walkway lights, they bathe in the sunshine all through the day and then at night they share the light that the day has given them. It is the ultimate mission of the contemplative Christian … to serve as candles and lanterns for a world searching for answers, a world trying to find its way, a world lost in the night. While many hold to the image that the Christian is the holder of a spotlight to locate the sinner, I hold that we are the candle and the lantern that makes Hope known.

But so much of the time, the radiance seems so dim. Why would that be? Many reasons, I suppose. But one is the matter of closed curtains. If we only occasionally open our curtains to allow the Holy Light to enter in, the Shekinah will be dim in our lives. If we only occasional open our curtains to allow or inner selves now enlightened to shine forth, the Light is too much confined.

So, a word to me and to you. We must draw wide the curtains, even to the point, of tossing aside … so that the Holy Light might enter in and that the Holy Light might shine forth. Shekinah … a phenomenon that takes place in a human life … the becoming radiant with the Presence of the Lord.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz