LIGHT AND DARKNESS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Light and Darkness.”

Basic stuff: light and darkness.

That’s the theme that hit me - when I read the readings, you  the class of 2013,  picked for this your Graduation Mass - especially the gospel text you chose for this Mass: Matthew 5: 14-16

                     “You are the light of the world.

            A city built on a hill 

            cannot be hidden.

            No one lights a lamp and then puts

            it under a measuring cup.

            They set it on the lamp stand

            where it gives light 

            to everyone in the house.
            In the same way 

            your light must shine before all,

            so that, seeing 

            the good things you do,

            they will give praise 

            to our heavenly Father.”

“Light and Darkness?”

We’ve all seen t-shirts and maybe even a tattoo or two with ying and yang on it. In the middle of the white light sliver side  of the ying yang circle, there is a belly button circle of darkness and in the stark dark sliver of the other side of the ying yang circle there is a white button of brightness in the middle of the darkness.

There’s a message there in that ying yang circle.

There’s a message there in all the circles and wheels of our life - in the joy rides - as well as when life is a flat tire.

Life: there is always something else. There’s always the twist and the turn - as the circle spins. When things look bright, the dark button sounds its warning signals - if we listen. When things look dark, look for the light - of hope.  There’s always the light of dawn after the dark of night - and the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

To see the light, we need the dark - we need contrast - otherwise we'd be blinded by too much light. But to see the dark, we don’t need the light. You see: there is always a twist. There’s always a surprise. There’s always a sunrise. There’s always a sunset. Expect them. There’s always the  expected as well as the unexpected difference.  Expect them.

Light and darkness. Expect them.

Grace and sin. Expect them.

Opportunity and temptation. Expect them.

Mistakes - as I’ve heard Mr. Matt Hogan tell you and your parents several times. Expect mistakes. Be honest about them. Learn from them. Get moving again from them.

And that goes for life - not just your life here at St. Mary’s.

THE GARDEN STATE PARKWAY AND 27,000 FEET IN THE SKY

When driving at night, there is a curve on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey - somewhere above Exit 105 - when you come up a slight hill and around an easy curve -  and you start to see the light - lots of light.  There is a town sitting there. There’s people sleeping there - with some lights still on.

When walking at night through Palestine, Jesus came around a bend - or a curve - and there in the distance - he saw lights - the lots of lights of a  town or a city.

And Jesus said to his disciples that night or after sunrise the next day the words we heard in today’s gospel,  “You are the light of the world. A city built on a mountain cannot be hidden.”

When flying at night in a plane some 27,000 feet or so above the earth - if you have a window seat - you can look out and down into the darkness and spot a sort of circle of city with its lights because of the darkness.

THE NEXT 50 TO 60 YEARS

When looking to your future, graduates,  the road ahead has ups and downs,  curves and twists and turns and you can only see so far ahead. I’m hearing you have your colleges picked out: Anne Arundel Community College, Gettysburg, Wheeling, Pepperdine, South Carolina, High Point, Fordham, Steubenville, Penn State, Boston College, Etc. Etc. Etc.

Those are lights in the darkness called the future - that you already see. You’ve visited those universities and you liked what you saw. Those are slivers of the known, but who knows - who really knows -  what’s around that next curve, and the curve after that curve, over that next hill and over that next hill after that. Expect surprises. Expect the unknown. Expect the opposite in the circle of what you’re expecting. Expect the ying in the yang and yang in the ying.  

Life is the unexpected. Otherwise: boring, boring, boring.

50 to 60 years from now you’ll be sitting on a porch on a summer night - and you’ll spot the lights of tiny planes high, high up there in the night sky and like the passenger 27,000 feet in the sky - in the window seat - you’ll see the bright lights of your life - from a distance - in the dark.

You’ll also see the times the lights went out - and all went wrong - and you were plunged into the mystery of life - into the ying and the yang of life - and by then you should have the hang of life - well at least a tiny bit more figured out  than what you have figured out by today - May 23, 2013 -  as you graduate from this school -  because you were in circles of lights and darkness - from time to time.

Life. Light and darkness.

Jesus saw on the road - that his road would graduate. It would gradually head towards Jerusalem - a city on a hill - and he would confront darkness and evil - even more - big time -  and he would lose - that day - some Bad Friday in the distance. The darkness would crush him on the cross on Calvary - but he trusted that the darkness would not win in the long run - that those who got that message - the message that’s what we all are called to do in life - to confront darkness and be the light - and turn Bad Fridays - Bad Days - to Good Fridays - to Good Days - because we are here.

Jesus knew darkness. Jesus knew light. Jesus knew people. Jesus knew life.

Jesus spoke about being the Light of the World. Jesus called his disciples to be the Light of the world.

That’s the plan of St. Mary’s - that you would go forth from here and bring light to our world - to bring the  lights that you have - that will overcome the darkness.

The plan is that you will leave St. Mary’s and bring you - a better you - to other schools - to other cities and countries - that you will improve media, meetings, marriages, messes - our world - that needs your light.

The plan is that you will not self destruct - that you won’t have to rip up or throw away your wedding photos - or delete the scenes of your life from your cell phones that show wrong moves and wrong relationships - but you live in the light and bring Christ’s light into our world.

That’s the plan - that Jeremiah - spoke about in the first reading we heard today read by Brad Beard. [Cf. Jeremiah 29: 11-14]

When young we think that plan by God is carved in cement or in a Bible or some book somewhere - out there - and it's up to us to find it.

When middle aged - we laugh - because we will have discovered that life is not a plan of what we’re supposed to do with our life - and who we’re going to marry - what’s going to happen in those marriages - and that God is the author of our autobiography. Hopefully, we will see the light. We will know we are the author of our life. Hopefully, we’ll also know the Lord is with us. Hopefully we will have learned and experienced what Saint Paul said in his letter to the Philippians [Cf. 4:13-19] which Meghan Norwood read for us today:

“I have the strength for everything

through him who empowers me.” 

That’s the plan.

CONCLUSION

Graduates - and here comes the graduation day stuff.

Some days will be bright. Some days will be dark. Some days will be sunny. Some days will be funny. Some days will be sad.  Some days will be rain or storm - but we hope not all day - not till the graduation or the picnic or the game or one’s life is over.

Some days we will need to be challenged. 

Some days we will have to speak up - challenge our family - our church - our world - ourselves. That means sometimes we’ll have to be the whistle blower. Some days we’ll have to shine our light into the darkness of a job situation when selfishness and evil is running the show.

Some days we’ll step back. We’ll walk alone on some early morning beach - at Ocean City or Hawaii  - and we’ll realize that the morning sunlight - is always there. We just have to be there to see it rising. We will have learned how life is learning how to start again over and over again. And on that beach, hopefully we’ll  meet Jesus and have the humility to admit that too often we were fishing in the wrong places and we’ll hear him tell us where to cast our nets in the right places and our nets will be filled to breaking point.

God’s plan is that we experience abundance - not of stuff - but of love and joy and giving. God’s plan  is that God is with us as we love and serve - as we give without counting the cost - that we give our life for our family and for a better world - that our life is a life of light and we take away some of the darkness each day.

             Light and darkness,

             Ying and Yang,

             Yackety Yack,
             Give it all back.
             That’s the plan.