[Propertalk] Go Light Your World

[Sil Galvan]

Friends,
       I have not been writing regularly for quite a while now but felt 
compelled to address the shootings in Arizona last weekend. I have 
attached my effort below (whoever posted that link to Go Light Your 
World on whichever list it was back in December, many thanks!). Any 
comments would be appreciated. I may not even be preaching it this 
weekend but have added it to my website. FWIW!!
Sil Galvan

Go Light Your World

(Begin with Youtube video of Go Light Your World at 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqBz_qvqBL4 )

In our first reading from Isaiah, we heard the verse “I will make you a 
light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the 
earth”. The principal refrain in the song we just heard is “take your 
candle and go light your world”.
Light is an image that has always fascinated me. Back in my high school 
physics class, we studied how light has properties that we can’t explain 
like how it can go around corners defying other laws of nature.
We should note that light is an image that is central to the gospel of 
John. In the very first few verses, he says that Jesus “was life and the 
life was the light of the world” (John 1:4). Later in his gospel, he 
records that when our Lord heard of the death of John the Baptist at the 
hands of Herod, he says that John was a “light, consuming and revealing, 
but you wished to rejoice exceedingly for a while in his presence” (John 
5:35). I remember meditating on that verse for days on end while I was 
in the Jesuit seminary and how I wanted to do my best to be a light in 
the lives of others.
Just a few weeks ago, we held our Longest Night service in the mausoleum 
for those who might be grieving the loss of a loved one which is 
especially difficult during the normally joyous holiday season. At the 
beginning of that service, I played this same video. I did that because 
later in the service, all those in attendance would be invited to come 
up and light a candle for their departed loved ones. I pointed out that, 
like the song and Scripture says, we all have a light within us. Perhaps 
we could call it the light of life and it radiates to others through the 
good works that we do in life. But once we have passed on, our personal 
light is extinguished unless it is carried on by those who survive and 
remember us. Then they must carry not only their own lights, but ours as 
well, especially in the good works they do in our name.
This past week, we were all stunned by the senseless shootings in 
Arizona. We struggle to make sense out of these tragedies but there are 
no easy answers to the questions we always ask in these circumstances: 
“why did it have to happen?”, “why couldn’t God have stopped it?”, “why 
do bad things always seem to happen to good people?”. The answers 
probably won’t be there until we ask our Maker directly in the next 
life. For now, we have to settle on knowing that God is there, not in 
the tragedies themselves, which he is powerless to prevent since he gave 
us free will to do either good or evil, but in our responses to the evil 
deeds.
That good is already evident in some of the stories that have emerged 
from the shootings.
∙    Dorwan Stoddard, 76, was a retired construction worker and an 
active church member who loved helping people in need. He took care of 
physical maintenance at Mountain Avenue Church of Christ in Tucson. He 
and his wife, Mavy, were ministry heads in the benevolence committee, 
working with people who had lost their jobs or homes. They were waiting 
in line to speak with the congresswoman when the shooting broke out. Mr. 
Stoddard pulled his wife to the ground and lay on top of her, shielding 
her from gunfire. He died several minutes later, with his wife wounded 
at his side.
∙    John M. Roll was the chief federal judge in Arizona and was fatally 
wounded in the attack. Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the United 
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, described Judge Roll as a 
tireless advocate for his district: “Of all the chief judges of the 
circuit, I must say he was always the hardest working — always looking 
out for his district. He’ll be a great loss to his family, but he’ll 
also be a great loss to the federal judiciary.” On Dec. 21, Judge Roll 
sent an e-mail to Judge Kozinski with an attached letter from Ms. 
Giffords and another member of Congress from Arizona, Ed Pastor, a 
Democrat. The two members of Congress encouraged the Ninth Circuit to 
“declare a judicial emergency” to help cope with the increased workload 
by extending deadlines under the speedy trial act. In the e-mail, Judge 
Roll wrote that the Congressional letter was “unsolicited but very much 
appreciated.” Judge Kozinski speculated - “just a guess,” he said — that 
Judge Roll might have gone to the event on Saturday to thank Ms. 
Giffords for the letter.
∙    Phyllis Schneck, 79, was New Jersey native and a great-grandmother 
who liked to sew New York Giants and Jets aprons for church fund-raisers.
∙    Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, was director of community outreach for 
Gabrielle Giffords. He was described as hard-working with an easy smile 
and a passion for helping people. Mr. Zimmerman, who had a master's 
degree in social work, was known as a peacemaker who handled difficult 
or angry people with care and skill. He spent nights and weekends 
helping to resolve the variety of constituent problems that arrive at 
the doorstep of a Congressional office. Mr. Zimmerman was engaged to be 
married.
∙    Christina Green, 9, was on the student council of her elementary 
school, so on Saturday her mother’s friend and neighbor Susan Hileman 
thought she might enjoy seeing government in action: the local 
congresswoman meeting with constituents outside a supermarket near 
Christina’s home. Christina loved animals and volunteered at a 
children’s charity. She was born on Sept. 11, 2001, and she was proud of 
it, her mother said, because it lent a grace note of hope to that 
terrible day. Christina, who was born when the family was living in West 
Grove, PA, was one of the 50 “Faces of Hope” representing children from 
50 states who were born on Sept. 11. Their images were printed in a 
book, with some of the proceeds going to a Sept. 11 charity. Her father, 
John Green, is a supervising scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her 
grandfather, Dallas Green, managed the Philadelphia Phillies to the 1980 
World Series championship and also managed the Yankees and the Mets. Her 
father John Green told The Arizona Star that Christina was such a good 
speaker that he “could have easily seen her as a politician.” But she 
also seems to have inherited her family’s baseball genes. She was the 
only girl on her Little League baseball team, and had told her father 
that she wanted to be the first woman to play in the major leagues. Her 
mother said she belonged to Kids Helping Kids charity and tried to help 
children less fortunate. Christina, a slender girl with brownish-blond 
hair, brown eyes and a gentle smile, also sang in the choir at St. 
Odilia Roman Catholic Church. In his homily at her funeral on Thursday, 
Bishop Gerald Kicanas noted that she wanted to make a difference in the 
world with her life. She had told her parents that she wanted to attend 
Penn State University and ultimately have a career that involved helping 
those less fortunate.
As you can see, all of these people had done good things with their 
lives. But all of their lives have been cut short. Monday is our 
remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr., another person whose life was 
cut short by a senseless murder. It is now up to us to carry on their 
memory, or the memory of any of our loved ones. It is up to us to light 
a candle in their name, to remember the light that they brought into our 
lives. It has been said that no one is truly dead until their memory is 
gone from the hearts of all those who survive them. Let us all go light 
the world, not only with our own light while we live, but the lights of 
those who have preceded us into the next life but who showed us how to live.