Miss Walter's Words: Testimony of Light

"He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the Children of Israel to the Lord their God." - Luke 1:15-16

I think I’ve found my new mantra.

Just the other night I was praying from my Magnificat and came upon a verse that I believe I have overlooked quite a few times. It is a verse from John chapter 1 verses 6-8 that talks about the coming of John the Baptist. It is written: “[John] was not the light, but came to testify to the light.”

As simple and factual as this may seem, this verse is packed with an important message for the ministry of our lives. We are not the light, but come to testify to the light. John the Baptist was not the messiah, as firmly stated. He was a prophetic man who dedicated his life to preparing the way for Jesus. He devoted his entire existence to the Kingdom, to testifying to the truth. There are two main things that we can draw from this verse, starting with the idea that we, like John, are not the light.

“[John] was not the light…]

It’s not uncommon to notice more selfishness than selflessness in the world around us. Much of the society we live in tends to lean more towards the idea of simply bettering ourselves and remaining inwardly focused. In a way, we treat ourselves as if we are the light. Even if we don’t, there is still the trap of idolization to fall into (which I must admit I have at points) in which we treat our fellow humans as if they are the light. We are not the light, but rather, all glory, goodness, all spark of kindness or genius is ignited in us by the Holy Spirit. We do not singularly carry our power or ability to do things, but rather must turn in thanksgiving to the God Who made us. Acknowledging Him as the light is what we should aspire to do in all situations and storms of life, rather than relying entirely on our own power or that of others. This is the calling of every Christian; to pave the way for Christ to come into our lives by first acknowledging Him as the light.

[…but came to testify to the light]

Since God has created our entire existence, we have no higher responsibility than to spend eternity praising Him for it. We are here to testify to the light, to call Jesus in to tap into the inner well of identity that has been buried within each of us. We are called to be love. We are here to be His, to discover the origin of our identity in Him and to draw other souls to Christ. This is not just an imprinted loyalty, but something much deeper that is woven into the very fibers of our being. We are here on this earth to turn all things over to Christ through praise. We are His people, His souls, and His children; a calling to which there is none higher. In the simplest form we, like John the Baptist, are called to live our lives so that we testify to Christ in everything we do.

Let us meditate on this verse as a basic outline for our mission to live for Christ.

I am not the light, but come to testify to the light.

Vocations: The Holy Adventure

"All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be."

 - Saint Francis de Sales


I'm pretty sure I'm called to be married, very, very quite sure. There was one summer where I thought I was called to the priesthood, but a very good friend of mine who knows me incredibly well told me that, though it'd be awesome if I became a priest, I shouldn't put marriage out of the question, especially because of my history of having problems with a fickle heart, or at least being prone to having crushes easily. I listened to her, and this 30th is me and Julie's first year anniversary, and she and I both are very sure that God wants us specifically with each other. There is still the possibility that He doesn't, but we've both prayed a lot about it so far, and we're always hopeful that He's calling us to marriage together someday.

Now, I know next to nothing about the priesthood and religious life and the single life (vocation-wise). I've read some of "Love and Responsibility" and the "Theology of the Body" talks, and I've always been fascinated by the vocation to marriage, even before I came into the Church. But I was thinking about vocations the other day at work because I had been thinking about ways to sanctify grounds-keeping for the Lord in ways other than trying to hear myself praying over a leaf-blower, and I kept getting an idea into my head:

More than anything, we are called to holiness, whatever we do and no matter where we are, no matter the situation we're in.

I don't mean holiness in the sense of the fantastic things you hear about in the lives of the saints. Some people may end up doing amazing, miraculous things like the saints, but often we're simply given our daily tasks, our responsibilities, our vocation. Our normal, often tedious, things we need to do are where most of us will be able to strive for holiness the most.

I had an English teacher once who, when we were discussing Graham Greene's book, "The Power and the Glory" (a book about a "whisky priest" who learns to get past despair), told us about three "levels" of vocations. The first is our vocation to Christ, that we are called to live out our whole lives as His disciples more and more fully as time passes, as we hopefully grow closer to Him. The second is our "state of life" vocation; marriage, priesthood, religious life, single-life. The third is our occupational vocation(s), whether its as a part-time student and grounds-keeper like myself, as a teacher, as a therapist, a physicist, however we work everyday. What's important is that the second and the third levels are supposed to help us with the first; that is, we grow in holiness by working hard and lovingly in our occupation and state of life for the sake of our life in Christ.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that no matter who we are, we all have the "universal call to holiness", and we all have our vocations that guide us along the path to holiness, and holiness is really, more than anything else, growing in love with Jesus more and more as we work, as we live with our spouse, as we live as a priest, in the religious life, as we live consecrated, no matter what.