Glimpses of Light - Father Dave's Blog

“And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.” (Luke 9:29)

Hi Fighter,

Last Sunday was the Feast of the Transfiguration. It’s a day of great significance in the Orthodox church – even more important than Christmas! In the Western church, we never really know what to do with it.

The Transfiguration is mentioned in each of the first three Gospels and is probably alluded to in the fourth (John 1:14). It refers to that incident, mentioned above, where Jesus was seen to shine, and where His clothes became whiter than any fuller could bleach them (Mark 9:3).

I confess that I’ve never felt comfortable with this image of Jesus and His friends shining like resurrected Jedi. It feels artificial, and yet the whole point of the story is that the light emanating from Jesus was not artificial. It had always been there, even though the disciples hadn’t been able to see it until that point in time.

Some people tell me that we all have a glow to us – an ‘aura’. Perhaps that’s right? Perhaps there are a lot of things that most of us are blind to most of the time?

Plato’s imagery of the cave always fascinated me. Plato believed that most of what we perceive as reality most of the time is nothing more than the shadows that the real world casts on the walls of our cave. To step out of the cave and see reality in all its fulness would blind us, so we content ourselves with the shadows.

I believe that, from an Orthodox perspective, the Transfiguration celebrates humanity stepping out of the cave (so to speak) and into the light. It’s that moment when we see both God and all of life in its fullness. In a sense, this all still lies ahead of us, of course, and yet we are given glimpses of light right now that we can hang on to.

Praying for the Ukraine

The image of stumbling about in a dark cave comes to mind as I pray about the situation in the Ukraine. My young friends tell me that it is all very straightforward and that Russia is trying to start another world war with acts of unprovoked violence. My knee-jerk response is:

You know they lied to you about Iraq
You know they lied to you about Afghanistan
You know they lied to you about Libya
You know they lied to you about Syria
Why do you think they are telling you the truth about the Ukraine?

I’m not suggesting that I have any simple and straightforward answers to the Ukrainian situation either, but I certainly do not think we should be enflaming the situation by adding more weapons to the conflagration. I would suggest too three excellent resources that give background to the Ukrainian situation:

Oliver Stone’s 2016 documentary, “Ukraine on Fire”
John Pilger’s article, “Western democracies have mutated Into propagandists for war and conflict.”
My friend, Chandra Muzaffar’s, very balanced analysis: “Ukraine: Understanding the Concern of the Other”.

We need to shine a light on this situation before the darkness engulfs us all.

Our Sunday Eucharist

I had hoped to be back in the bush this weekend but, sadly, the weather has made Binacrombi virtually inaccessible once again. For those who have been wanting to join me for a weekend adventure, please adjust your diaries to March 11 to 13. I am confident that we will get there and have a great weekend. In the meantime, we will celebrate our Sunday Eucharist at midday from the relative comfort of Sydney via:

The Father Dave Facebook Page.
YouTube
LinkedIn

Celebrating life

I had a wonderful birthday dinner this week with my family and a few close friends. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make my 60th a grander affair but perhaps I’ll save that till I’m 70. I remain deeply grateful to those who were able to join me.

If you’re able to support me via my Patreon page, be assured that I’m almost back to full speed and am keen for more clients:

Middleweight Division ($10/month) where you get access to the member site, along with the videos and other resources.
Heavyweight Division ($100/month) which includes individual coaching, along with software subscriptions to both Buzzious and Streamout, allowing you both to publish an unlimited number of quality blogs and to livestream.
Super-Heavyweight division ($400/month) includes all of the above plus me training with you one-on-one – at The Fight Lab and at Binacrombi Bush Camp