“Make of yourself a light,”

said the Buddha,

Before he died.

This is the first line of a splendid poem by Mary Oliver, the renowned American poet. Through the remainder of the poem she imagines the Buddha’s last minutes of life interspersed with a description of the rising of the sun.

An old man, he lay down

Between two sala trees,

And he might have said anything,

Knowing it was his final hour.

Imagining my own last minutes of life here on earth, I wonder what my last words will be. If I were to condense any wisdom that I have gleaned over the years of my life into one sentence, what would it be?

Slowly, beneath the branches,

He raised his head.

He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.

I am not sure that I can do much better than the Buddha with his words of exhortation to “make of yourself a light.” Or those of Jesus, who, close to the time of his own death and after he had humbly and scandalously washed his disciples feet, proclaims: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Make of yourself a light. Love one another. Simple, direct words containing a lifetime of wisdom and sacrifice. These final gifts bestowed unto us by the wisest of the wise… do we hear them? Will we heed them?

All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into beingin him was life, and the life was the light of all people.The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:3-5)

~Father Art