Do you know what a prism is? [Hold one up] It’s a piece of material, usually glass, cut into a shape with many angles. What’s cool is that when light hits a normal piece of glass, it goes right through it. But when light hits a prism it changed directions. Light gets dispersed or modified. The common word is refracted. That is, light goes in one way and comes out different. For example a white light hits a prism and dispersed, or refracted and comes out red, or yellow, or blue.
As you know the name of our parish is Christ Our Light... for Christ is the source of our light as our guide, our friend, our Savior, our Shepherd, our King (and on and on). Christ is the light and I would say that we are invited to be prisms. That is, the light of Christ comes and what do we do with it?
Think of the disciples in the gospel: Jesus was going along preaching some pretty radical stuff, “Repent, the Kingdom of heaven is here.” And he goes and specifically calls certain people to bet their lives on the good news he was announcing. Now remember, he just came out of the desert and he starts his ministry with NO intention of doing this mission alone. He is not a Messiah OVER people but a force for salvation WITH and AMONG people. He not only shares his message and power, but in John 14 he says, “You will do greater things than I did.” Wow! And as we learn from the book of Acts (which chronicles what the disciples did) we learn that they did things different from each other.
It’s like they were to take in the light of Christ, like a prism, and refract it out there . . . in many ways. And so are we. With a prism, the light is refracted in different colors. And so are we. We take in the light of Christ and disperse it out there differently. For some of you, you refract that light in red, for some in blue, some in yellow.
And if you are called to refract Christ as a blue light, be the best blue light that you can be. Don’t try to be a yellow light. That’s not going to help the kingdom. Be your best self, your best light.
Your call is to disperse the light of Christ in your own way. Of course we are united in the same message as St. Paul writes about it the second reading, but the light of Christ gets dispersed through us in different ways. Some of you refract Christ by helping others, some by listening, some by generosity.
And how do you know what kind of light you are supposed to be? Well, we have a tool to help you discover your gifts. It’s called the Spiritual Gifts Assessment. You can take a survey to determine your gifts through our parish web-site or we have hard copies available for you after Mass. There is no gimmick here, no strings attached . . . just a way for you to discover how you best let Christ’s light shine through you. After completing it, we ask you to place a tab on the big chart in the entrance way indicating your top gifts.
But let’s go back to the story. Notice that the four disciples who are chosen, immediately drop everything to follow him. Their families must have thought they were nuts. But they take on this new light within them with all the abandon and enthusiasm of people falling in love. For when you fall in love, you do crazy and wonderful things. I must believe that they didn’t fully understand what they were getting into but they did follow Jesus like they were moving beyond mere infatuation and ready to make a life-long commitment.
And that’s part of this sharing our gifts. It must be done with the same enthusiasm as if falling in love. That is, falling in love with Christ. For you can pretend to share your gift with joy. [I mockingly pretend to have joy as I say, “Whoopee, I help people.”]
Find that energy, find that joy . . . that is yours. You best reflect the light of Christ not by adopting some image of Christ “out there” but by becoming more authentically who you already are. If you are green, don’t pretend to be orange. If orange don’t pretend to be red. In the movie 1981 Chariots of Fire which won Best Picture, Olympic runner Eric Liddell says, “I believe that God made me fast. And when I run I feel God’s pleasure.” What is it, that you are meant to do... to feel God’s pleasure?