Invite The Light

Corbin Gardner '13 (right) speaking with
a guest after our Commissioning Mass

              How will I ‘allow the light’ this year?  Such is a worthy question no matter who you are, but especially so for the 35 Mercy Volunteers preparing for an upcoming year of service in the name of love and mercy.  I consider myself lucky to be among these 35 and yet genuinely challenged by the theme of this week’s orientation—‘Allow the Light’.

               Fortunately, we have been given some excellent food for thought on how, exactly, we might allow the light that is mercy to penetrate and permeate our lives and service.  Speaker Tony Medwid, director of the Bethesda Project of Philadelphia, put it to us like this: light can only get in through cracks.  What are my cracks?  As much as I would like to believe that my strengths will carry me through this year, I am beginning to think that it might be my weaknesses, vulnerabilities, or the cracks in my armor that will actually serve as the vehicles that transport me toward my intended destination.  Do I truly believe that entering into my weaknesses could enlighten my life? Is vulnerability the path to deep joy?

            “Allow the light, in order that you might become the light”; such was the challenge Sister Megan Brown, RSM posed to us.  Although such words can be cryptic, confusing, and cliché,  (here I sympathize with Happy Gilmore and Danny from Caddyshack—“be the ball”) I know there is some wisdom in them.  How do I ‘become the light’?  Perhaps a hint lurks in the name of our organization—mercy.  Mercy, like compassion, can only be expressed to another person after we enter into his or her life in all of its messiness.  In order to do so, it may require that I admit that, beyond a few cracks, my life is downright messy.  If I have the courage to confess that my life is messy, that it is in fact riddled with cracks, then perhaps the illusions of my person that I have attempted to piece together can give way to a drowning light, a light that gives life and hope to others of all backgrounds and a light which invites persons to consider the goodness of its source.  Thus, I make the words of our theme my prayer as we begin our year of serving those who are poor and marginalized. I invite the light.

Corbin Gardner - Witness to Innocence - Philadelphia, PA