Apr 10., 2020 / Features, General, Soul Food
Faint Glows and Sparkly Somethings
A reflection for Easter 2020 by Sr. Yna Oñate, rc
For K-drama fans, these images from a scene in the recent hit “Crash Landing On You” would be familiar. A blackout envelops the entire village and Yoon Se-ri, a South Korean who accidentally landed in North Korea, was left by herself in the market, lost among a crowd of strangers in a potentially dangerous place. The darkness pulls her back into a painful memory of being abandoned as a child. She starts to count, just like she did back then, while waiting for someone to rescue her. Perhaps resigned to the thought that no one would come, she takes a deep sigh, as if mustering all her courage, to face her present darkness, and just as she did she saw a dot of faint glow from a distance. She walks toward it, one timid step at a time, eyes fixed on the source. It got brighter and brighter as she drew nearer. She soon realizes it is Captain Ri who’s holding a candle high for her to see. Tears well up in her eyes; this is the same man who had come to her rescue several times before.
Faith in God does not guarantee we will never be in darkness. Darkness is part of our human experience. Even Jesus, the Son of God, was not spared of darkness; we were reminded of this these past three days, but the promise of Easter is that the darkness of death will never triumph. When we look around us we still see the darkness of disease, greed, hatred, hunger, corruption, injustice, inequality, etc. These days in quarantine must have heightened our sensitivity toward the darkness that surrounds us, and yet, in spite of the gloom, glimmers of goodness and generosity give us hope. Amidst the rising death toll, you may have heard of the nurse who, after her shift, buys groceries and distributes to the homeless, or of the street vendor who gave free taho to the checkpoint personnel at a border, and of many acts of selflessness and compassion from ordinary people. Or maybe you didn’t have to look very far, you may have observed lovely things in your own home—the laughter of your child or spouse, the chirping birds, the plants outside your house, the filling goodness of the humble kamote… things you failed to notice before. God’s love for us is like Captain Ri with his candle, God’s help always comes at the right time. We do not know how long this Covid-19 crisis will last, and what else will come, but we trust that God always gives us enough light to enable us to take a step, one at a time, toward the right direction. Jesus Christ is our Light!
Light shines in the dark, “a light that darkness could not overpower. (John 1:5)” This is what our Christian faith asserts, but how do we keep trusting God in the “blackout” of our lives? St. Ignatius de Loyola has an advice: In moments of desolation, recall moments of consolation. A wise omma from one of my favorite K-dramas (iBecause This Is My First Life) puts it in a lyrical way when she talked about “star pockets”: “Even in an ordinary life there are times when something sparkly floats by. At those times you must not miss it, and keep it carefully in your star pocket. So when you are having a tough time and when you are exhausted, you can take out your stars and look at them, and endure the hard times.” We only see stars when the sky is dark, don’t we?”
So, this Easter, let us pray for the grace that we may recognise the stars and the Captain Ri’s that God sends our way. And may we never fail to respond to God’s call to be light for others. Happy Easter, friends!
P.S. Captain Ri is played by actor Hyun Bin, an oppa with bewitching handsomeness! Well, while God’s help always comes, it does not always come in this package. We pray that we may not pass up God’s offers just because we expect them to come in certain ways.
