Thursday, May 26, 2005
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Augustine of Canterbury, Evangelizer of England
2nd Vespers Mid-Pentecost: Isaiah 55:1-3, 6-13 Apostle: Acts 10:34-43 Gospel: St. John 8:12-20
St. John 8:12-20, especially vs. 12: "...I Am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life." God is Light, a claim and vision concerning God which Holy
Scripture, the Fathers, and countless Orthodox Christians fully accept. This is the Faith of the Holy Apostles who declared,
"God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 Jn. 1:5). Earth-born mortals that we are, let us all take care as we speak
of God as Light, for He is not the ordinary light to which we are accustomed.
The light most of us know is created, the sort of light that casts illumination, but God is Light Himself, the One Who
creates light and lights. All created lights came into being out of nothing when God said, "Let there be light: and there was
light" (Gen 1:3). The Uncreated Light of God is not sensible material to make Him visible to our physical eyes. God is
quite separate from and Other than His creation, including all its forms and types of created light. In Himself, from His
Divinity, apart from all created lights, God is Uncreated Light. Still, men have known for ages that God is Light, like the
Prophet David: "The Lord is my light..." (Ps. 26:1 LXX).
However, let us not rest after this basic assertion. Let us go on, for while we know of God as Light, in order to be faithful,
and state our Faith fully, we must add that God also has directly revealed Himself as Light, even though no eyes shall ever
see Him; for no man may see nor hath seen God at any time (Jn. 1:18). Rather, the Son of God, the Eternal Word of God,
God of God, Light of Light, became Man. Incarnation was the first means by which men were able to "see" Divine Light.
And those who saw Him declared, "The Dayspring from on high hath visited us" (Lk. 1:78), "the true Light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world" (Jn. 1:9,10). When He came, He Himself declared openly, "I
Am the Light of the world..." (vs. 12). In what way did they see the Divine Light? Those who believed in Him said, "God,
Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shined in our hearts" (2 Cor 4:6). Thus God gave the light of the
knowledge of His glory in Jesus Christ, in men's hearts.
There is more: the Incarnate God gloriously revealed Himself as Uncreated Light to the physical eyes of Peter, James, and
John on Mt. Tabor. The whole body of the Lord was transfigured, and the mortal eyes of the disciples saw the radiance of
Divine Light (Mt. 17:1-9). He "was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white
as the light" (Mt. 17:2). What happened when the Lord Jesus was transfigured? He did not lay aside His humanity. Rather
He illumined His humanity with His Divinity. This they saw.
Such transfiguration of human nature has important consequences for all men. The nature of all men has a capacity to be
illumined by the Divine Light! The Lord has demonstrated the possibility that a person who acquires the grace of the Holy
Spirit can himself become an actual participant in the Divine radiance. As St. Simeon the New Theologian says, "The
Father is light, the Son is light, the Holy Spirit is light....And by contemplating it, we can receive it."
Iron is not fire, but fire transmits its effects into iron. The Divine energies as Light can illumine men with the light that was
seen on Mt. Tabor. Such illumination of humanity we call "theosis," or "deification." Also, Light Incarnate has made it
possible for us to be "the light of the world" (Mt. 5:14), "in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation [to] shine as
lights in the world" (Phil. 2:15). Let us arise and turn to Him, that Christ may give us light (Eph. 5:14). Illumine our
hearts, O Master Who loveth mankind with the pure light of Thy Divine knowledge, that we may enter upon a spiritual
manner of living, both thinking and doing such things as are well-pleasing unto Thee, for Thou art the illumination of our
souls and bodies.
