One light, many lights

As I write this column. the day is coming to a close and the early evening has been graced with one of the most beautiful sunsets! At first, my eyes were almost blinded with the piercing late afternoon sun, which then dipped behind a cloud—lighting it afire with bright clear yellow moving into pinky-gold and flaming orange.

The fiery sight reminded me of an altar ablaze with dozens of candles for the Feast of the Presentation, otherwise known as Candlemas, which we celebrate on February 2. I thought about Joseph and Mary, following their religious tradition, presenting their first-born son Jesus in the Temple. The old man Simeon took the child in his arms and praised God for bringing the light of revelation to all peoples.

This light of revelation has been our focus all during this season following Epiphany. We have moved from a star bringing the wise to new wisdom, to this one small child, this Jesus, being the light of revelation.

Which brings me back to the candles…

It’s one thing to picture a great mass of candles, lighting up a room. But it’s another to think about one single candle gleaming through the darkness.

That one life, Jesus, gleamed through the darkness of his time, bringing hope and life and love to not only his immediate time but to all time. That light, that hope and life and love set others ablaze to hope and life and love! And our souls too can be set afire to bring hope and life and love!

Our agencies and programs were founded by people who had a burning desire to be part of God’s mission on this island, to bring hope and life and love. They were single candles gleaming in the darkness who gathered others to join them. Those massed flames of hope and life and love have created the agencies and programs which have been the hope and life and help of so many.

Will you join us in bringing hope and life and help to those in need across Long Island? When you give what you can, whether small or large, all the gifts joined together can do great things. I cannot pay a hospital chaplain’s stipend on my own, but many of us together can help 23,000 patients receive solace and comfort at St. John’s Hospital, Far Rockaway. You might not be able to fund a soup kitchen for a year, but many of us together can help feed the hungry of a neighborhood in Brooklyn or Queens.

Each small candle lit to pierce the darkness, joined with many others, can create a blaze as bright as that sunset I experienced, as bright as those dozens and dozens of candles on the altar at Candlemas, helping bring light and hope and love to needy people from Brooklyn to Montauk.

Please give generously to Episcopal Charities of Long Island, 36 Cathedral Avenue, P.O. Box 510, Garden City, NY 11530. To use a credit card, please go to our website www. episcopalcharitiesli.org or call 516 248-4800, ext. 19 and speak with Mrs. Nancy Kennelly, Administrative Assistant. When you make a donation in memory of or in honor of someone, their name will be recorded in the Book of Remembrance and an acknowledgement sent to them.