Uncreated Light

While spending the last two Sundays steeped in a mystical world of incense, bells and icons in my local Greek Orthodox Church in order to be better able to teach about Orthodoxy in my world religions class, I encountered something unexpected: a new way of thinking about light.

According to Orthodox Christian theology, it is possible to see and experience the presence of God, which is called the Uncreated Light. This is what the Orthodox consider to be divine grace. Whatever your suffering, you are still worthy of entering into the endless folds of the uncreated, Eternal Light. In doing so, you will undergo a process of deification where you are transformed into divinity for the purpose of healing the world.

In 14th century, Greek monks on Mt. Athos developed a way of meditating that gave them the ability to see this Light. With chins resting against their chests and gaze turned inward, they scandalized Western Christians who disbelieved in the possibility that God would clothe a person in divinity through His energies. The monks considered themselves having found a secret path to Love, a gateless gate with no door or key. When not meditating, they sang hymns of mystical union written centuries earlier by Saint Symeon the New Theologian,

He Himself is discovered within me, resplendent....Entirely intertwined with me, He embraces me entirely. He gives Himself totally to me, the unworthy one...

The monks' quest for the Uncreated Light reminds me of the Zen quest for enlightenment, which usually begins with a question pointing out the futility of created things:

The world is such a wide world, why do you answer a bell and don ceremonial robes?

The message here is that if we want to draw from the deeper well of divine energy in meeting life's challenges, we may need to re-commit ourselves to the journey toward Love, seeking that which is behind, or beyond, the created. Far from being powerless to do so, we have the ability to transcend the lives we lead in our work clothes (ceremonial robes) performing our expected duties (answering bells).

Let's take some time this week in whatever way we can, to do what the 14th century monks did: figure out how try on the brilliant robes of grace.

Whether teaching, healing, running, ministering, or taking care of other duties, the world will be a better place if each of us does so while, as the Psalmist writes,

...dressed in a robe of light (104:2).

From Saint Symeon:

Do not say that men cannot perceive the divine light, or that it is impossible in this age!
Never is it found to be impossible, my friends.
On the contrary, it is entirely possible when one desires it.
(Hymn 27, 125-132)