Monday morning, two days before payday 鈥� pensions, assistance and disability allowances come but once a month. Fuses are as short as cash. The mounting overdose deaths add a layer of pain as dry as dust in the courtyard at Our Place. Sometimes it鈥檚 hard not to believe that the world would rather the poor were dead and done with. The words to a Christian anthem play in my head:
鈥淎ll this pain/I wonder if I'll ever find my way/I wonder if my life could really change, at all/All this earth/Could all that is lost ever be found?/Could a garden come out from this ground, at all?鈥� (Beautiful Things lyrics 漏 2010 Music Services, Inc. Songwriters: Brian Johnson / Christa Black / Jeremy Riddle)
Nine-fifteen, nine-thirty. Out on the boulevard, people glance up. Someone dekes outside from the lobby with a pair of funny cardboard-frame glasses and the first brave soul faces full into the sun. The face transforms. The mouth becomes an O. 鈥淧ass the glasses!鈥� Again the upturned face 鈥� the O 鈥� the awe. The wonder passes from face to face to face as the shadow carves its way into the sun. People gather near and the glasses pass from one to another. We line up to see it again 鈥� again. Maybe it gets darker, maybe it gets cooler, we are too lost in wonder to notice. For a few moments, pure childlike wonderment breathes its magic. The crowd starts to dwindle. Reality takes the place of wonder. The jostle and hustle and humdrum of two days before payday return to Pandora Street.
鈥淎nd the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.鈥� Words from the Gospel of John in the Christian Scripture. For Christians, Jesus, the Light of the world, shines in the darkness, and somehow, the darkness does not overcome that Light. All this pain/I wonder if I鈥檒l ever find my way鈥�
Because there鈥檚 always pain for those who speak truth to the powers that be, in or out of the church, synagogue or mosque. Those who say, 鈥淟ove one another. Feed the hungry, bind up the wounded, let the captives go free, care for the widow and the orphan.鈥� Those who call the powerful to account. For Jesus, that honesty, that light, that calling to account led to a lonely road and death on a cross. And there are still powers that do not want to hear 鈥淟ove one another.鈥�
But that light, the light that shone in the darkness was not for Jesus alone. Jesus says to his followers too, to all of us, 鈥淵OU are the light of the world鈥� people don鈥檛 light a lamp and put it under a basket, they put it on a stand, so it gives light to all in the house.听 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that听they may see your good works and give praise to your Creator in heaven.鈥� (Matthew 5:14,16 Inclusive Bible)
There are deep divisions in our society, then and now. The locus of power, first of all. Power, respect, income, opportunity, racism and privilege divide us then and now. And yet, the Light 鈥� light 鈥� continues to shine in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.
For today, here on the street, we do not ask for more than this 鈥� that for a few moments we remember that there is a Light, and that Light is in us, and it cannot be overcome.
Rev. Julianne Kasmer is part of the Spiritual Care Team at Our Place Society, Victoria, sa国际传媒.
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking,
* 听This article was published in the print edition of the sa国际传媒 on Sept 2 2017
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