Daily Reflection: Monday of Holy Week

Today’s first two readings are about light and that seems like a good topic to think about on a Monday morning.

The first reading is Isaiah 42:1-7:

Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
Upon whom I have put my Spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
Not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
Until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the LORD,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spreads out the earth with its crops,
Who gives breath to its people
and spirit to those who walk on it:
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
To open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.

I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations…

Later on in Isaiah 49, he writes: I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

The Psalm is 27:1-3, 13-14:

The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
When evildoers come at me
to devour my flesh,
My foes and my enemies
themselves stumble and fall.
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
The Lord is my light and my salvation.

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear? The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?

The imagery of light and fire are throughout the Bible, fittingly so, because Jesus brought light to a dark sinful world.

When my mom died just over seven years ago, she was in our home in our spare bedroom on Hospice care. I don’t know about you, but I had never lived in a house where someone had died before and even though I was 33 years old, it was still a little strange to walk into that room even months after she died. We have since moved, but we lived there for a few years after she died and I wondered if I would ever get over the feeling of strangeness about that room before we left.

The help I got in doing so came from what one might consider a strange source knowing that I’m a devout Christian. A good friend of mine is very into Feng Shui and that type of thing and she asked if she could do a space clearing in that room with me. At first I was resistant to it, as I’m sure you can understand, but after she explained what would happen, I finally gave in. I figured that maybe I needed that symbolic “space clearing” to help me move past what had happened in the room.

My friend is not religious so she looks at things much differently than I do, but she told me to take what we were doing and apply it to my own way of thinking, which I did. I don’t remember all the steps exactly but I do remember there was clapping, burning incense, ringing bells and finally, lighting a candle that I had purchased specifically for the occasion.

It was the lighting of the candle that really drew me in because as my friend talked me through the meditation, I imagined that the light of the candle was the light of Jesus filling the room and filling the empty spaces of my heart that my mother had left when she died. And as much as I don’t go for the new agey kind of stuff, when I let myself feel that the light was Jesus’s light, it became a very powerful experience for me and it made going into that room a lot easier. I guess what that means is that we need to be open to new experiences, even when they make us a feel a little uncomfortable, because you never know where the cleansing power of God will come from.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your light in our darkness. Because you are our light, our salvation and our refuge, we have no reason to be afraid. Help us to wait for you with courage and the knowledge that you are always there for us and you will always answer our prayers.
In the name of Jesus the Christ,
Amen

Question for reflection: Have you ever had an “enlightening” experience?