Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today’s readings includes the Nun portion of Psalm 119.

This short section expresses a basic reality about God and his relationship to us: namely, that God is light, and that God’s Word illuminates our darkness.

When the young Smerdyakov in Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, mocks the early Genesis story, noting there could be no light before the sun was created, he makes a category error in his youthful and cynical materialism. The answer to his question is also a theological description, that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Such a statement is not simply a metaphor, but a theological and metaphysical verity of the highest importance. God is light.

By this, we do not mean God is simply a manifestation of physical light, but rather the One in whom physical light has its origin and telos, and the One who illuminates and illumines creation and creatures, having made all things out of nothing. Thus, as St Paul says, “it is the God Who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6) This glory was the light that the disciples saw on Mount Tabor, when Jesus was transfigured before them, and the brilliance that blinded St Paul on his way to Damascus.

The psalm also teaches us that God’s word illumines our path. Such language intimates our utter reliance upon God for everything. We only know insofar as God illuminates—a statement one can interpret in a variety of ways, to be sure. There is no wisdom, no righteousness, no intelligence, no life, no existence without God’s illuminating power—let us not forget that “illumination” was also the word used for holy baptism. Thus, the psalmist teaches us to pray, “Quicken me, O Lord, according to thy word,” and this prayer remains archetypal for us as creatures.

Yours in Christ,

—Justin