The Defining Light of Christ

Sitting at adoration the other night in the back of the Novitiate chapel I noticed that in the darkness the light reflecting on and then eminating from the monstrance silhouetted my spiritual father, defining him in the the darkened chapel. In the darkness it can be difficult to discern which brother is which, but when he shifted positions his physical form and each curve of his face became evident and I knew beyond a doubt that it was him.

Yet it was more than a physical definition. Who he is as a priest, as a child of God is defined in the light of Christ. It shapes his life and his heart illuminating his heart and mind in the darkness of the world allowing him to bring the light of Christ to others. Each choice he makes, and indeed his entire life and being, is defined by the Light. His presence reveals the Light in both the physical contrast in the chapel of his silhoutte against the light and in a metaphorical way by the way in which we see the Light defining his entire being and purpose.

May each of us allow ourselves to be illuminated and defined by that same Light.