Thoughts about Light

 Medieval anchorites/anchoresses lived in an anchorage, a dwelling built against the wall of a church.  The anchorite had a window opening into the church, through which to receive communion, and a window opening onto the street for that other way of living the eucharist – communion with ordinary people;  sharing wisdom and taking their troubles into the heart of prayer.

The name – anchorite/anchoress/anchorage – obviously comes from ‘anchor’. What were they anchoring? The Light.  Their task in life was to anchor the light of heaven into this local spot of Earth.  They were there to beam down the Light, and hold it there.

This was a very self-giving thing. It required a kenosis, a self-emptying, a willingness to be set aside and offered up to a path of absolute simplicity, so as to achieve the level of transparency through which the Light might be poured.

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The American mystic Elise Nevins Morgan wrote: ‘A beaming countenance, integrity of body, form and face, is all important and is only won through faith – faith in the fullness of God’s life. Repeat: “In faith I live, in faith I move, in faith knowledge dawns and I am awakened.’”

As beautiful as all her writing – but she riveted my attention with those words, ‘A beaming countenance, integrity of body, form and face’.  Usually, when people say ‘a beaming countenance’, they mean ‘a smiling face’ – but that’s not what ENM is saying here. 

Her meaning draws on the Aaronic blessing, ‘The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon thee, and be gracious unto thee, and give thee peace.’

‘The light of His countenance’ is not a cheery smile. It is the concentration, the beaming forth, of the I AM, the living core, the creative centre.

When ENM speaks of ‘A beaming countenance, integrity of body, form and face’, she is describing the task of anchoring the Light, so opening and offering oneself as to hold the Light in this local spot of Earth.

This is a very self-giving thing. It requires a kenosis, a self-emptying, a willingness to be set aside and offered up to a path of absolute simplicity, so as to achieve the level of transparency through which the Light might be poured.

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My friend Pearl, a healer, writes poetic reflections. She works with a healer and wise man in his speaking ministry.  When he prepares to speak, he gives her the subject matter and charges her with the task of preparatory listening so that, comparing the results of their work in advance of the class he gives, they may get as it were a triangulation on the now word of God for the present moment. 

She listens, and then she writes down what comes – notebook after notebook of poetic reflections, what Pearl has heard from God.  She is well named.

I spent some time visiting with her this last week.  Here is an extract from one of her most recent listenings:

‘And then The Light  

The brightness of the heavens  

Revealing itself in the silver moon, the stars,  

In sun and sunbeams,  

Pink dawns and sunsets gold,  

Sunlight that shapes a rainbow in the sky  

By shining through myriads of raindrops in a sudden shower  

Then rippling a golden path across the sea.  

And then, the Christ-Light  

That shines through the eyes, words, touch and heart of man  

In God’s illumination of each soul.’

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These three things taken together – the anchorage holding the light for a local spot of earth, faith holding a beaming countenance of light in a particular person, and the work of Christ in focusing the divine Light into humanity – made a sudden, immense expansion of awareness in me, gave me a startling insight into what Jesus was actually doing.

. . . have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature [or, in the form of] God,
 did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature [or, the form] of a servant,
 being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself . . .

(Philippians 2:5b-8a NIV UK)

He was the first anchorite, bringing and holding the light into this place on Earth – humanity – and by grace incarnating a beaming countenance in our midst.

This is a very self-giving thing. It requires a kenosis, a self-emptying, a willingness to be set aside and offered up to a path of absolute simplicity, so as to achieve the level of transparency through which the Light might be poured.

*        *        *

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.

(Genesis 1:1-3 NIV UK)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

(John 1:1-4 NIV UK)

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Christ, the Logos, anchored the Light from its inception.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made.  When God said, ‘Let there be Light’, Christ was the anchor, the beaming countenance through which Light streamed and life began.

In the person of Jesus he specifically anchors Light into the human race.  The Light is diffused throughout Creation – holy, because it arrived there only through the Logos, the Christ, without whom nothing was made that is made – in dawns and dusks, in stars and sunset, in the golden glory of light across the sea, in the rainbow, in the splendour of sun amid clouds and the bright path of the moon; but in Jesus the diffused Light is made particular, anchored into us – our hope, our illumination, our salvation.

This is a very self-giving thing. It requires a kenosis, a self-emptying, a willingness to be set aside and offered up to a path of absolute simplicity, so as to achieve the level of transparency through which the Light might be poured.

*        *        *

These thoughts remind me of that wonderful poem by the theosophist Alice Anne Bailey, The Great Invocation.

From the point of Light within the Mind of God 


Let light stream forth into the minds of men
 

Let Light descend on Earth. 

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
  

Let love stream forth into the hearts of men 


 May Christ return to Earth.  

From the centre where the Will of God is known
  

Let purpose guide the little wills of men
  

The purpose which the Masters know and serve.  

From the centre which we call the race of men
  

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
  

And may it seal the door where evil dwells.  

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

I’ve never been too sure about the bit saying ‘may it seal the door where evil dwells’.   Personally, I want evil dealt with a bit more thoroughly than that.  The cross of Jesus, standing between Earth and Heaven, acts as a kind of lightning conductor – anchoring and focusing the Light with such trustworthy stability that evil is utterly zapped; not sealed up, not temporarily thwarted, burnt to blazes, finished.

This is a very self-giving thing. It requires a kenosis, a self-emptying, a willingness to be set aside and offered up to a path of absolute simplicity, so as to achieve the level of transparency through which the Light might be poured.

*        *        *

When I participate in the Eucharist, and go to make my communion with God, as I eat the bread and drink the wine . . .

‘The Body of Christ’ 

‘Amen’ – and Augustine taught his catechumens, ‘Let your “Amen” be for “I Am”

. . . I pray, Lord Jesus, put to death all that is evil in me.  For evil cannot co-exist with Christ. In the body Christ enters, in the heart into which he is invited, evil is routed, dispatched.

This is a very self-giving thing, that Jesus does for me, in the Eucharist. It requires a kenosis, a self-emptying, a willingness to be broken and poured out and offered up to a path of absolute simplicity, so as to achieve the level of transparency through which the Light might be poured.

So it is that in me Christ the anchorite holds the Light to the particular spot of Earth that I Am, his beaming countenance announcing his new creation; Let there be Light. And it will be.

Create in me a pure heart.