From Darkness to Light: Part 2

Total Darkness…Life Giving Light

In the book entitled; “The Naked Now” by Richard Rohr, it is stated that in the year 1123, Christian philosophers developed a theory that humanity was created with three different sets of eyes, creating three different ways to view life, each building on the previous one.

The first eye was the eye of flesh—which focuses on the physical body or sight dealing with what we can see, feel, touch, move & fix. People who view life through their first eye are not interested in figuring things out or understanding the grand scheme of things. They view life through what they see & that is enough. For them a sunset is simply a beautiful reflection of light in the sky.

The second eye was the eye of mind. People who view life through their second eye make sense of their experiences by using coherent thought, technology & scientific reason. They are interested in figuring things out, e.g., about every 20 years or so, the moon passes between the sun & the earth casting a shadow on the Earth fully or partially blocking the sun’s light creating total darkness. The light of the sun returns as the rotation continues.

The third eye is the eye of true understanding & contemplation. Those who view life through their third eye know & enjoy what is gained from viewing life through their first & second eye but are able to progress from seeing, to explaining to “tasting”, remaining in awe before an underlying mystery, coherence & spaciousness that connects them with everything else. This view is the goal of all seeing & all knowing. Seeing things through the eye of flesh or the eye of mind, may enrich our view but it does not bring us into living in the fullness of the Divine Light of God, which promotes whole health & healing. Those who use the third eye; move from mere sight, then scientific reasoning into actual inner experience. Actual inner experience opens us to a deep inner connection with life & in so doing brings us closer to God our Creator. Some call this movement conversion, some call it enlightenment, some call it transformation & some call it Holiness.

Throughout the Bible we read of many times when God used illustrations or experiences of creation to reveal His message to the world. In this past month, Christians observed the season of Easter & the resurrection. Easter is a season of darkness & life-giving Light. In the Bible, we read in the Gospel of John, that after much suffering & torture, the Son of God, the Light & life of the world, fully human, fully divine, the Word made flesh who walked among us to make God known to us bring grace & truth to the world, was crucified, died, & rose from the dead. We read in the Bible that at the time that Jesus surrendered His final earthly breath & died, darkness covered the earth, marking the end of all hope & all earthly life as people had known it, for there can be no life without light. Jesus was the Light of the world; with His death all hope was gone. The darkness was a sign from God that Jesus was the life & Light of the world. However as written in the Gospel: three days after His death, Jesus who had died, arose from the dead & in the fullness of God’s Divine Light, revealed the gift of new resurrected life to those who had experienced total darkness. With His resurrection the Light shone in the darkness & the darkness did not overcome it.

~Posted by Rev Kathryn Bindig, MDiv. MS; Pastoral Care Minister with assistance from Rich Muscatello; Director of Business Development & Strategy