“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. ”
Café Terrace at Night, 1888 by Vincent van Gogh. Collection Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands.
‘Unique’ could be a favourable depiction of someone. Or a less-than-flattering one. But imagine being described as ‘luminous’ by a colleague or family member. (One can aspire!) A luminous person radiates genuine care, affection and grace to everyone. A larger-than-life person can light up a room (or incite a mob to march on a capitol). Luminous people, on the other hand, light up the world.
Marist Schools Australia and The Star of the Sea Province and ministries are full of luminous people. Teachers, principals, deans, board members, office staff, boarding coordinators, librarians, groundskeepers, nurses, finance officers, coaches, school psychologists, chaplains and religious. Often unaware of how radiant they are or transformative the work they do is, true luminaries impact others for good. One person at a time. They provide special attention to those most vulnerable, neglected or in need. The luminous aren’t perfect. Every person has their faults. Even the brightest lights can burn out, run out of patience, or lose their cool when the heat is on or the pressure too much to bear.
“Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light… ”
Luminous people make mistakes but are gracious and truthful. They forgive others, and themselves. Truth illumines, and grace shines brightest in darkness, as a diamond sparkles on black velvet. The luminous glow as lamps in the night, just like the one that saved a lost Champagnat and his companion in the snow. O gladsome light. Appearing in a black blizzard. A twinkling and solitary sight in a foreboding forest on a sombre mount. Not a garish lighthouse guiding a tall ship of a hundred souls to haven, but a little lantern. Innocently lit. Held in the unintentional hand of a nameless French farmer, without whom there would be no Marcellin, or Marist Association, or MSA.
“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. ”
Created in God’s image, humans are radiant and creative beings. Our signature DNA provides each of us with a unique face to shine on the world. One may have a doppelganger, an identical twin or triplet (or more!), but no two fingerprints leave the same mark. We are God’s individual masterpieces. Everyone is precious, regardless of our physical prowess or intellectual ability. Whatever stage of life. Uniquely luminous. Our lives and labours, however humble, are distinctive, like the work of a great artist whose creations can be identified as the fruit of their particular hands. The hands of van Gogh or Georgia O’Keeffe, Rodin or Mary Edmonia “Wildfire” Lewis.
Wildfire Lewis was an American sculptor, a woman of Native American and African heritage. Though discriminated against, Wildfire would not be dissuaded nor relinquish her artistic pursuits. She was a luminary who, scorned by racists at home, gained acclaim in England and Italy during the era of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Orphaned at an early age, Wildfire ardently perfected her craft over many years. Her light would not be snuffed out, nor her talents suppressed. She brought stone to life, sculpting biblical and other figures and scenes. She breathed her own soul into the marble she carved and made the world a more lambent and peaceful place.
“And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another”
Edmonia Lewis, The Death of Cleopatra, carved 1876, marble, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Historical Society of Forest Park.
Henry Rocher, Edmonia Lewis
c. 1870, albumen print, Harvard Art Museums,
© President and Fellows of Harvard College.
As wars continue to scourge the globe, a hot microphone at a military parade in 2025 caught two world leaders (who have both supplanted their country’s constitutional term limits to rule for decades) talking casually about “constant organ transplants” and advancements in biotechnology enabling one to "live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality.” Their tête-à-tête should ring warning bells. The terrors of organ harvesting, and human cloning, are acts which fly in the face of the glory of each human being, and God’s. We should work and pray to help ensure such practices never become acceptable.
“Her (Mary’s) only concern is the genuine good of her peers, in each one’s uniqueness, because there resides the glory of God. She is therefore the absolute enemy of evil in its most essential sense of the destruction of being. ”
Knotted rope or strung pebbles have been used for contemplative prayer since the Desert Fathers of the third century. The Rosary we know dates from the time of Saint Dominic (1170-1221). Marcellin was a devoté of the Rosary. So was Pope St John Paul II who, in 2002, added The Luminous Mysteries. These are meditations on Christ’s divine nature: Jesus’ Baptism; The Wedding at Cana; The Proclamation of the Kingdom; The Transfiguration; and The Institution of the Eucharist.
To me, these Mysteries of Light appear as catalysts for change. Jesus went from tradesman (tekton) to teacher at his baptism; water went to wine at Cana. People are changed with the Third Luminous Mystery, as Christ calls for a metamorphosis in our lives – from caterpillar to butterfly. Christ’s own appearance changed with the Transfiguration, recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke, when he shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white, “…such as no one on earth could bleach them.” (Mark 9:3). With the 5th Luminous Mystery, bread and wine become Body and Blood. Soul and Divinity.
With light comes growth, and with growth, change. Often slowly, but at times, like lightning. As daughters and sons of Mary, we carry her torch: a mission to make Jesus known and loved. It is a mission we undertake knowing that the love of Christ will never break a bruised reed. Or quench a smouldering wick.
David Bobkowski
Mission and Life Formation Team
