The Gospel of John tells us that “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”[1] It still is, but can we perceive it? The light is coming, but are we looking for it in the right place?
Often, we think of the light as outside of us, off somewhere in the distance. If we wander too far away from the source, the light becomes dimmer and dimmer until it is no longer visible at all. But what if the light that is coming into the world emerges from the heart, and is available to enlighten everyone because we already carry it wherever we go? It is here that our Quaker relative, Thomas Kelly, invites us to look for the light:
Deep within us all, there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return . . . calling us home unto itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the face of humanity. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe earthly form and action. And Christ is within us all.[2]
“Christ is within us all.” The Light of Christ, the source of enlightenment, salvation, reconciliation, healing – is within us. This is consistent with the message of the Gospel of John. Christ is the eternal Word through whom all things were made, the life that is the light of all people, the light that the darkness cannot overcome. [3] The light of Christ within shines through us to illuminate a world that is radiant with the glory of God. John’s Gospel echoes the psalmist: “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”[4]
Note the language of seeing: of perception and illumination. The light within is not a little candle twinkling in our heart; it is the capacity to perceive reality holistically and compassionately with an undefended heart. The light within enables us to see as God sees.
John the baptizer testified to this light. He refused to identify it with anyone or anything outside of himself: not the Temple, or the Torah, or the priesthood; certainly not Caesar. Religious leaders tried to force John to conform to their understanding, to the categories that they could interpret and control. John’s reputation as a wild man came from his refusal to recognize any human authority as ultimate; he refused to concede to anyone control over access to the light. He doesn’t conform to other’s expectations or resist them. They just don’t matter. He is too engaged in bearing witness to the light.
Nor did John claim to be the light for anyone else: he was neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet (he was merely a prophet). The baptism he offered was an external sign of an inward reality. John’s baptism was a preparation for, and public commitment to, the light that is coming into the world. He baptized with water in anticipation of one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, transfiguring our perception so that we become transparent to the divine light within.
Jesus is the Christ because in him we find the perfect mirror in which to see the light within reflected back to us. St. Paul understood this well when he wrote,
For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.[5]
The light does not come from us; it comes through us. We are not the power source, but we can be a transmitter of the light.
Embracing the light within opens up a tremendous field of freedom, but it also demands that we take responsibility for our lives. Here again, St. Paul, was on target when, after admonishing the church in Philippi to “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,” he concludes,
Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.[6]
We can listen to a teacher like St. Paul, but the truth to which they bear witness has to be experienced directly. It must become internal to us. Even our devotion to Jesus and his way can too easily remain a purely formal, external, even transactional relationship (I will worship you if you save me), rather than an internal reality (I will have the same mind as you). We have to engage our own inner work.
And that work, though it is for our healing, can evoke a good deal of fear and trembling, because while the light is within us, so is the darkness. Jesus himself teaches us that “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.”[7]
As our perception is purified by the work of the Holy Spirit within us, then we become full of light. But in the process of inner illumination, it can be disturbing to confront dimensions of our experience previously concealed by the darkness. Father Thomas Keating offers a helpful image to express what I am trying to describe.
Suppose we were in a dimly lit room. The place might look fairly clean. But install a hundred bulbs of a thousand watts each, and put the whole room under a magnifying glass. The place would begin to crawl with all kind of strange and wonderful little creatures. It would be all you could do to stay there. So it is with our interior. When God turns up the voltage, our motivation begins to take on a completely different character, and we reach out with great sincerity for the mercy of God and for God’s forgiveness. That is why trust in God is so important. Without trust we are likely to run away or say, “There must be some better way of going to God.”[8]
This is another aspect of John the Baptist. He is a wilderness prophet, and trusting the light within can at times feel like an expedition into the wilderness: there be monsters there! But it is only in the light of God’s love that whatever pangs of conscience, or stuck emotions, or trauma carried in our psyche and nervous system, can be revealed and healed. Perhaps we so often seek the light outside of ourselves because we don’t want to confront the darkness within. But we must work out our own salvation in fear and trembling, trusting in God’s grace. Then, in God’s light we will see light, and drink from the fountain of living water within gushing up to eternal life. And this light will radiate in such a way as to bring healing, not only to us, but to the world. As Cynthia Bourgeault suggests,
When we see from resonant wholeness, what we see is the Kingdom of heaven, which is neither a place you go to when you die, nor a human utopia created by all sorts of pluralistic agendas. Nor is it something that you simply discover, “Oh, it was there all along.” I think the secret to it: we co-create it, because the light by which we see is also a stream of energy that beams out to it and allows it, in that light, to become what it can’t be until it’s suffused with the light. What happens when the sun suddenly hits a valley where it’s been cloudy, and all of a sudden, the whole thing is bathed in light and turns golden? It’s the same thing, but it’s the same thing at a different energy level. That’s what happens. “Light shines forth from a being of light,” says the Gospel of Thomas, “and lights up the whole world.” That as we begin to create the stable radiant field, it’s the quality of that presence that goes forth into the broken and dark and hideous and maimed places of our culture and changes them, not by programs, but by the light itself.[9]
Or as Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.”[10] Amen.
[1] John 1:9
[2] Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 3.
[3] John 1:1-5.
[4] Psalm 36:9.
[5] 2 Corinthians 4:
[6] Philippians 2:5, 12-13.
[7] Matthew 6:22.
[8] Thomas Keating, Open Mind Open Heart (New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1994), p. 94.
[9] Cynthia Bourgeault, “Introductory Wisdom School Transcript,” (Center for Contemplation and Action, 2019), p. 155.
[10] Matthew 5:14a.
