Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost; Commemoration of the Miracle Performed at Colossus in Chone by the Archangel Michael; The Holy Martyr Eudoxius and his companions; Our Venerable Father Archipus.
2 Corinthians 4:6-15; Matthew 22:35-46.
Read 2 Corinthians 4:6-15
To “catch lightning in a bottle” means to capture an elusive, powerful force. Whether it is nation states, technology companies, or marketing gurus, the race is on all around us to harness knowledge that others don’t have. “Knowledge is power” is not a new concept but the time in which we live amplifies its allure. That includes a desire for spiritual power.
God, who created light, says that a kind of knowing in our hearts is spiritual light, that his face – which no one can see and live – can be seen in the face of Christ. That is powerful. We want our spiritual lives to have good powerful effects. We want to relieve our own and others’ human afflictions, perplexities, and persecutions. And we do, to a certain extent, yet they remain. We might be tempted to think that we have captured lightning in a bottle.
We have been given light but not shiny, clear bottles. Anyone claiming to being able to provide one is selling something false that will not shine the light effectively but will end up distorting it. We are given a much humbler container – ourselves. Only humbly carrying the light in a dependant, non-triumphalist way will allow it to illumine our path. If we veer off the death-and-resurrection path Jesus walked, we will no longer be clearly seeing by the light given to us. We still bump up against the things of life in this world and look just like everyone else in that sense but, seeing us find our way by faith through these things, others may observe us seeing by a light they do not yet see, but perceive that the light is there, be drawn to it, and begin seeing by it themselves.