We’re called to “live in the light”, but we tend to have an overly romantic idea of what that should mean. We tend to think that to live in the light means that there should be a kind of special sunshine inside of us, a divine glow in our conscience, a sunny joy inside us that makes us constantly want to praise God, an ambience of sacredness surrounding our attitude. But that’s unreal. What does it mean to live in the light?
To live in the light means to live in honesty, pure and simple, to be transparent, to not have part of us hidden as a dark secret.
All conversion and recovery programs worthy of the name are based on bringing us to this type of honesty. We move towards spiritual health precisely by flushing out our sickest secrets and bringing them into the light.
Sobriety is more about living in honesty and transparency than it is about living without a certain chemical, gambling, or sexual habit. It’s the hiding of something, the lying, the dishonesty, the deception, the resentment we harbor towards those who stand between us and our addiction, that does the real damage to us and to those we love.
Spiritual health lies in honesty and transparency and so we live in the light when we are willing to lay every part of our lives open to examination by those who need to trust us.
- To live in the light is to be able always to tell our loves ones where we are and what we are doing.
- To live in the light is not having to worry if someone traces what websites we have visited.
- To live in the light is to not be anxious if someone in the family finds our files unlocked.
- To live in the light is to be able to let those we live with listen to what’s inside our cell phones, see what’s inside our emails, and know who’s on our speed dial.
- To live in the light is to have a confessor and to be able to tell that person what we struggle with, without having to hide anything.
- To live in the light is to live in such a way that, for those who know us, our lives are an open book.
Ron Rolheiser, OMI
