Light or Darkness
- Michael Haldas
- May 8
- 3 min read
“This spiritual, incorrupt, eternal light communicated to our souls is Christ our God Himself, the true Light that enlightens every man that comes into the world. Spiritual darkness is sin—the culprit and author of sin is the prince of darkness, the devil, who darkens and seduces mankind with sin, teaches every sin, and draws man to eternal destruction…We choose to live either in light or in darkness.” (St. John of Kronstadt, Orthodox Study Bible, Wisdom of Solomon 15:7)
“… many people, maybe even we ourselves, prefer darkness to the light. Feeling comfortable with wicked deeds, with the deeds of darkness, doesn’t just prevent us from loving the light, but makes us fear it, as well. Sometimes even to hate it. Because then we, like [Constantine] Cavafis, feel the Light as a new tyranny. This is what he says in his poem ‘The Windows’. Living in the darkness of his passions, on the one hand he seeks windows onto the light, but, on the other, he trembles at the prospect of finding them: ‘But the windows are nowhere to be found; or I can’t find them. Perhaps it’s better if I don’t. The light may be a new tyranny. Who knows what new things it might reveal?’ ” (Archimandrite Varnavas Lambropoulos)
“Not seeing our sins is a sign of spiritual illness. Why did the ascetics see their sins as innumerable, as the sand of the sea? It’s simple: They drew near to the source of light—to God—and began to notice secret places of their souls that we simply don’t notice. They observed their soul in its true state. Here’s a fairly familiar example: Let’s say your room is dirty, not cleaned up, but it’s night and everything’s hidden in semi-darkness. It seems like everything is basically okay. But then dawn breaks through the window and the first ray of sunlight penetrates the room, illuminating half of it. And you start to notice the mess. You notice it more and more as the day goes on, and when the sun illuminates the entire room, the dirt and your scattered things are visible everywhere. The closer you are to God, the more visible are your sins.” (Archpriest Pavel Gumerov)
“If we are weak and sick with sin, we need corrective lenses, a light to illumine the darkness we find ourselves in. And if we need to be transformed or purified, that means that fallen humanity unaided and untransformed cannot properly see or perceive, hear or understand true reality (see Mark 4: 12), especially spiritual realities, as one can notice many times in the Gospel accounts….spiritual transformation through the grace of the Holy Spirit is necessary for true seeing, true understanding….what one is able to see, to discern—one’s ability to interpret—depends directly upon one’s spiritual state….how one interprets, one’s very ability to interpret, or “see,” depends directly upon one’s spiritual state.” (Dr. Mary S. Ford)
“Since none of us has perfect spiritual clarity and we often find ourselves anxious about very small things, we must intentionally open the eyes of our souls to Christ through prayer, fasting, and generosity, even as we struggle mindfully to resist the temptation to make anything in this world a false god. The daily circumstances of our lives all provide countless opportunities for us to do precisely that. If we will use them for our salvation, and humbly repent whenever we have not, then the light of Christ will illumine us as we unite ourselves evermore fully to Him. That is how we may all learn to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” in a world that remains so full of darkness and presents so many temptations to idolatry and fear. He is the light that we all need in order to see clearly and live faithfully each and every day of our lives.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
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