Believe in the light while you have it

By Mary Regina Morrell
Catholic Online

"No longer shall your sun go down, or your moon withdraw, For the Lord will be your light forever, and the days of your mourning shall be at an end." Job 60:20

Deep within the fiber of my genetic make-up is that powerful little gene labeled "saver." If an item has any sentimental significance you can be sure it is here in my house - somewhere - though I may not be able to put my hands on it anytime in the near future.

So when I decided to look for the little crystal prism necklace my mother gave me when I was a teen, I had little hope of finding it in a timely manner.

After searching in all of my old jewelry boxes to no avail, I rummaged through the back of my closet and found several boxes filled with beads for making jewelry. Among the beads were some old trinkets which I had planned to recycle to create something new. Perhaps my necklace is in there, I thought.

So I carefully carried the boxes downstairs to the kitchen table and set them up for investigation. Of course, I could not undertake any such endeavor without a cup of tea so I left the boxes unattended while I moved to the stove to boil water.

Meanwhile, out in the family room I heard the familiar guttural growl of one of my cats who holds a deep distain for my dogs. Soon there was a bark, then another, then some hissing and then it happened. - fur flying and paws galloping down the hallway.

This isn't good, I thought, as I moved toward the table. But as in all such situations our movements become like slow motion, our arms reaching out to save whatever is about to be lost, our voices sounding a low, moaning, "NOOOOOOOOO!"

I snapped back into real time as four paws hit the table, trying to put on the brakes but sliding none-the-less at breakneck speed into my boxes of beads.

Hundreds of beads, all shapes and sizes, were flying, bouncing and rolling around the kitchen. Dogs were slipping across the floor like some cartoon strip and the cat was sitting on his carpeted ledge above us hissing - or maybe it was his way of laughing.

As I crumpled into a chair with the teapot now screaming into the air I didn't know if I should cry or curse, so I did both, until speckles of glittering red and yellow lights on the wall caught my attention.

Those are the lights from a prism, I thought, and quickly checked the floor in front of the window. There it was, the small crystal ball necklace my mother had given me so long ago. It made me smile.

I remembered hanging it on the end of my window shade when the sun was shining so it would dance colors on the wall. Watching it happen again at this moment, even in the middle of such a mess, called to mind something I had recently read.

In his book The Way of the Flame, Jewish author Avram Davis wrote, "It has been described in our tradition that God is the infinite light and our soul is like a prism. Hold a prism up to the sun, and it will fill with innumerable permutations of light. Each prism moves light in different ways. In the same way, each person catches the Infinite differently. And this difference, from person to person, is very important to keep in mind."

What a beautiful insight.

How I wish I could have shared it with my friend who believed he was of little value in this life, who saw the giftedness and success of so many others and wondered what he could possibly offer the world. How I wish I could have helped him understand that loving, listening and laughing were the unique way he "caught the Infinite," and that, surely, his way was the richer way.

But I can't, because he's gone, his life ended by his own hand because he couldn't believe that he needed only to be himself to be loved and to be the light of God.

When I am asked why I do the work I do there is only one answer with any meaning -- so others will know the love of God.

Life without that light can be painfully lonely.

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Regina Morrell - Associate Director, Office of Religious Education, 732 562-1990

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.org

Keywords

believe, light, prism, crystal,

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