FOLLOWING THE LIGHT
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
February 11, 2020
(Reported
from a previous blog, The Church of Saint Pascal Baylon, 2/5/17)
It seems
less common to see them today, but you can still see occasional searchlights in
the night sky. Most usually they are used to lure people to some sort of festive
attraction, like a theater show or a carnival or a car sale. The idea is that you
try to follow them to their source on the ground, hoping to be pleasantly
surprised by what you discover there when you arrive. But that isn’t at all the
reason why searchlights were created and used 100 years ago. They weren’t used
then as diversions for amusement. They were, in fact, mostly used by the
military, and they played prominent roles in both World Wars. And their purpose
was not to discover the source but to light up their targets—namely, enemy
aircraft on nighttime bombing missions. In a world before radar and GPS and
satellites, the only way to know what was out there and above you in the dark
was to illuminate it from the ground. The attention was not paid to what was
below, but rather to what was being searched for up there.
And to
remember that is to make some deeper sense to today’s Sacred Scripture. On the
face of it, their message seems pretty straightforward. Prophet Isaiah tells us
to do good works for others—feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the
naked, tell the truth, comfort the suffering. That’s all good and right, and
easy to understand. So too is the Gospel of Matthew today, as we hear the
continuation of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: be salt and light for the world,
make a difference by your actions, let people see the good that you do and the
good that you are. That’s pretty simple and clear.
But the more
important question in both readings is why do that. And there are two entirely
opposite possible answers to that question. One answer is to glorify me, and
the other is to glorify God. Which end of the searchlight is the important one?
The one on the ground or the one in the heavens? There’s only one correct
answer to that. Today people follow searchlights in order to find out who is
causing them to shine down here. Nobody pays attention to the night sky because
everybody knows there’s nothing in particular to be discovered up there with
the light…just exactly the opposite of a century ago.
And just the
opposite of the message of the readings today. The purpose of letting the searchlight
shine for us Christians, is not to draw attention to ourselves, but to
illuminate the one who above us—not enemy aircraft, but Jesus Christ. Our gaze
is to be directed to him rather than us.
And because
sometimes the darkness can be heavy and oppressive, sometimes Jesus can be hard
to find, and sometimes it can be relatively easy for us to question also
whether there is anything, or any one, out there to be found—or whether we are
shining our lights for no purpose other than to draw attention to ourselves.
And if that can be a temptation for us, just imagine what a temptation it is
for people who don’t have the gift of faith or of Christian community, or of
light-givers around them. We believers are called to be a very specific kind of
light—one that points the way to the discovery of our Lord in the midst of
darkness. We are intended to be true “searchlights.” We are the ones who are
very well aware that He’s there, and He’s nearby, and with a little light from
us He may be found by anybody.
In today’s
second reading, St. Paul reminds his readers in Corinth that his effectiveness
as a light came not because he was full of himself, and his cleverness, and
strength, and bravado, but just the opposite:
“I came to you in weakness and fear and trembling,” he says.
Why? “So that your faith may rest not on human wisdom, but on the power of
God.” When we recognize a true searchlight in the world, the attention should
be directed up, not down.
And yet,
without our being the light here below, people never discover what is above.
Both ends of the searchlight are necessary, but only one is the goal. That
demands that we persevere in our duty to be light for the world, through our
good works, even when it doesn’t seem that we receive much reward or
satisfaction or praise for that. Because ultimately, that isn’t the point. God
is the point…the One “up there.”
It can be
exhausting and frustrating to continue in the responsibilities of being
searchlights. That’s exactly why we need to keep coming back to the Eucharist
each week, to remember it all again in our Sacred Scriptures, to rehearse it
all again at the altar, and be encouraged to get out there and do it for the
world for another week, helped by the other Christian lights with whom we
worship here. May it be so for us again, as we are fed from this table in order
to be salt and light.
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