Reflections by Sister Mary Margaret Weber, CSC

Sister Mary Margaret Weber was among six women religious honored Feb. 5, 2005, at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh, N.C., during a special mass celebrating the annual World Day for Consecrated Life. Recognized for her 40 years of service, Sister Mary Margaret had the additional honor of being asked to give a reflection at the liturgy. Her call and commitment to religious life are evident in her reflection, reproduced below:

John 8:12, 12:35-36

I am the light of the world.
I AM the light of the world.
I am the LIGHT of the world.
I am the light of the WORLD.

No matter how I say it, I find it difficult to say. It sounds kind of pretentious, doesn’t it? It’s easier to say, “Jesus said, I am the light of the world,” and I must admit that I am relieved at how the responsibility shifts from me to him when I say it!

But to say, “I am the light of the world,” is to claim the identity that Jesus conferred on his followers. He said, “You are the light of the world.” That means, “I am the light of the world.” I don’t think he saw himself as the only light. I think he expected help.

Those of us celebrating jubilees here today are celebrating a decision we made 40 and 50 years ago. When we made vows in the community to which we were called, we were proclaiming that this lifestyle of religious consecration was the best way for us to let our lights shine and be the light of the world in whatever part of the world we would subsequently serve.

Now we pause to look at our journeys and to give thanks for the light we’ve received along the way and the light we’ve been able to provide for others whom we met along the way.

“Out of darkness God has called us.” We know only too well that this journey from darkness to light is not a single journey. It’s happened over and over in these 40 and 50 years. We need to give thanks for both – the darkness and the light. Most of the time, they’ve been intertwined, one leading to the other and back again. It’s what’s kept us on our toes – and growing!

In the early years of my commitment, I didn’t appreciate the darkness. I thought it was something to be avoided. John of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Soul did not seem user-friendly to me. But I have come to see how important the darkness is. Nature uses darkness as a time to prepare for growth. I think that’s the role it has in our lives as well. Without darkness, and the searching that goes with it, I think the light would be dim, lacking the clarity that comes with the bright light that is the result of coming out of darkness.

In these years of commitment, I’ve noticed there are different kinds of light. There’s the light that comes instantly – like when someone who’s oozing positive energy comes into a room. We even say, “She’s got a personality that lights up a room.”

There’s also the light that comes just when it’s needed. I recently read about an experience of a Native American woman, a seeker, who was attending a party. While she was there, a man who had had too much to drink was verbally demeaning and abusing others and using ridicule and intimidation as his equalizer, to cut others down to his size. She walked up to him and gently placed her hand on his chest, consciously gathering all the love she had and sending it into his heart. Then she whispered to him, “Please, don’t do this. It hurts.” As the story is told, her loving energy and her hand on his heart blew through him and his body jolted into attention. He became silent and shamefully left the gathering. This woman was not Christian, yet she knew that she was a light and had the courage to act out of that awareness. In doing so, she transformed not only the situation from one of darkness to light, but probably also the man who was acting inappropriately.

There is also a light that takes a while to reach us. Scientists tell us that, when we look up at the night sky, the light entering our eyes from the nearest star left there some 4.5 years ago, traveling at a speed of 670 million miles per hour! Consequently, we are looking at that star as it appeared back then – it may not even be there right now. With other stars, we may be looking back hundreds, even thousands of years. That’s almost too awesome to comprehend. But, as I try, I wonder: if light travels in years from outer space to us, maybe that’s true of our light – the light we try to bring by our actions, our attempts to be “the light of the world.” Maybe we are living in the light created by our ancestors. Maybe our new sense of interconnectedness, the resurgence of the feminine all over the world, and the countless random acts of kindness were born when someone before us chose to let her/his light shine. Maybe our efforts today to bring light will bear fruit long after we have returned to the stardust that scientists say is the makeup of all matter. The people of that time will see a world where violence is an aberration, where peace is held as the highest value and conflict-resolution is taught as commonly as drivers education, where women are no longer held back by patriarchal institutions and held down by discriminatory practices, where children and the poor are not exploited, where everyone everywhere has enough food to eat, where the wealthy and powerful see their responsibility to the poor and act on it, where life is meaningful and purposeful for all.

This, I think, is the hope that fuels all commitments. We live in joyful hope that our efforts will bear fruit, that our lives will be a light shining out of the darkness of our times. We may not see what is revealed by our light, but we know, in the depths of our hearts, that it will make a difference and that it can be provided by no one else. If we do not claim the identity Jesus calls us to and say, boldly, “I am the light of the world,” if all we do is quote Jesus calling himself the light of the world, our world will be dim, indeed.

There’s a story told by one of the lights in my life, Joan Chittister: “Holy One,” the disciple said, “how shall I know the difference between knowledge and enlightenment?” And the Holy One said, “When you have knowledge, you light a torch to find your way. When you have enlightenment, you become a torch to show the way.”

Did you enjoy this article? If so, browse our archive to read past “Reflections.”