Tucked in the birthday card from Sister Elizabeth was a small slip of heavy paper, a few words printed on it in ornate type. The printing was obviously done in the pre-computer days of real printing presses, because I could feel the words when I ran my finger over either the front or the back of the paper. Sister Elizabeth told me that it was given to her in 1954 by Sister Edith Robinson, who had a small press in her office. These are the words on the paper:
The Light that leads
To Jesus is His Own.
- St. Ambrose -
If it is true that we are all called to be God-bearers in this world, it is also true that we are God-borne – carried, held, sustained, and brought to birth by God. At times I am aware of being borne, sometimes through the desert and often in spite of myself. In these moments I am shown how my life’s journey has been bringing me to a holy freedom in Christ. Other times I grope about in the darkness, feeling more bound than free, and can only beg to trust that I am being led by a Star I cannot see to a Coming that remains totally mysterious and that I pray to recognize.
Yes, Jesus has indeed come. Emmanuel is closer to us than our small minds can grasp. Yet we always live in the paradox of the here and the not yet. On the one hand, what we most long for is already and always ours. On the other hand, what we long for is still to come.
We are always waiting and longing — for the Second Coming, of course, but also for our own fulfillment in the Mystery of God-with-us.
But our waiting is doubly blessed. Even as we wait, we are being led toward what we are waiting for, as the Magi were led toward the infant Jesus. Even as we say, “Come,” we are being borne toward the One who is here and is to come.
Not only that, but we are led by the Light that is Christ, and we are borne by the very One for whom we are longing — who is right here with us, breathing the divine Spirit into us, carrying us, transforming our hearts and minds into the heart and mind of that Jesus to whom and in whom we journey.
In the words of St. Ambrose, “The Light that leads to Jesus is his own.”
‘I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’
(Revelation 22:16b)