Olympics shows desire for light burns bright

When the Winter Olympics opened on Feb. 8, the arena was illuminated by hundreds of Salt Lake City youngsters skating onto the ice and shining their beacons of light to welcome the world’s athletes. In the tradition, a single torch was carried, then lifted to light the Olympic flame.

In a far-off storybook land, Peter Pan and Wendy were led safely home by following the twinkling light of Tinker Bell.

In church, the Gospel according to Matthew is quoted: “Ye are the light of the world … Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

In real life or in make-believe, in poetry, in patriotic songs, in scriptural readings, there is a universal yearning for light, for dawn out of the darkness.

We search for stars in the black of night. We watch for streetlights to guide our way home. We burn candles and lanterns in power outages, and we carry flashlights along the snowy path.

In symbol or in truth, we look to light … if not for our very survival, for our sense of security, comfort and hope.

“Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,” wrote English churchman John Henry Cardinal Newman, “Lead thou me on. The night is dark, and I am far from home; Lead thou me on. Keep though my feet: I do not ask to see the distance scene; one step enough for me.” Perhaps one step is all we can take, if the step is lighted and the foot is sure.

“By degrees the comforting light of what you may actually do and be in an imperfect world will shine close to you and all around you, more and more,” wrote American essayist James Lane Allen in 1897 in “The Choir Invisible.”

And, in this imperfect world, we are always searching for light, as Theodore Parker wrote in “The Way, the Truth, and the Life”:

“We look to Thee; Thy truth is still the light which guides the nations, groping on their way, stumbling and falling in disastrous night, yet hoping ever for the perfect day.”

We look around us for signs of light in our nation and in our world, “Light,” said Johann Friedrich von Schiller, “when thou else wert blind.” We find countless references to light in patriotic songs, including “America” by Baptist clergyman Samuel Francis Smith, who wrote: “Long may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light; protect us by thy might Great God, our King.”

The poet John Milton wrote in “Paradise Lost” of light and darkness: “God saw the light was good; and light from darkness by the hemisphere divided: light the day and darkness night, he named. Thus was the first day even and morn.”

Not surprising, fewer poets spoke of darkness than of light. “O Light divine! We need no fuller test that all is ordered well; We know enough to trust that all is best where love and wisdom dwell.” Those words were written by 19th century transcendentalist Christopher Pearse Cranch.

In this 21st Century, we would think on the light with which this country illuminated the Olympic Games. We would think on the biblical urging to be the light of the world, to shine before men. We would think on the black storms of war and violence and the darkness of despair.

And we would remember the last words of Goethe’s “Faust:” “More light!” We need more light.