This Little Light of Mine, I'm Gonna Let it Shine...

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..."

The words rang through St. Albert the Great Catholic Church in Compton, California. Standing at the foot of the altar and facing out towards the crowd of parishioners, a group of young ACE teachers, smiled, clapped, and sang along. Early the next morning, they would be running half-marathons and marathons for this very church and school. I was among those ACE teachers at the front of the chruch that night, and as we processed out of the church, singing and clapping the whole way, I couldn’t help thinking in that moment a thought that doesn’t come to my mind often enough: God is in this place.

What is light? If one of my sixth-grade students asked this question, I would say what any knowledgeable, resourceful, and time-constrained teacher would say: “Look it up in the dictionary!” So as I asked myself the same question, I decided to follow the advice of the wise aforementioned teacher and did the same. I looked it up in the dictionary. If you didn’t know, there are about forty-five different definitions for the word “light,” but for now, I will concentrate on this one:

The natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible.

When taken literally, this means little more than “the thing that helps people see stuff.” But if you take this same definition and look at it through a spiritual lens, your own sight will be stimulated to a meaning with much greater power. With that spiritual lens, this definition of light may be transformed into “The agent of love within us that stimulates sight and makes God visible.”

Looking at the word “light” with that spiritual lens on, I can think of no better word to describe my experience with the 2017 ACE Marathon. Time after time, through the generosity of the people at my ACE school in Texas, through the love of my fellow ACErs, and through the warm, welcoming embrace of the people at St. Albert the Great in Compton, my own sight was stimulated, and God was made visible to me.

The generous people of Mary Immaculate School, where I teach sixth grade just northwest of Dallas, Texas, were the first to make God visible to me through my ACE Marathon experience. Our school raised $2,585 for St. Albert the Great, and while I’d love to say that this was due to my unyielding fundraising efforts, that simply wasn’t the case. I sent one e-mail out to the faculty and staff of Mary Immaculate telling them that I would be running a half-marathon in Los Angeles to raise money for a Catholic school in Compton. I couldn’t have even dreamed of what would happen next. Not only did people give, but they asked if they could share the cause on their Facebook pages. They forwarded the e-mail to our Room Moms at Mary Immaculate, whose families gave and then passed the e-mail on to all of the parents of students I’ve taught the past two years. I was completely overwhelmed not only by these people’s generosity, but by their own commitment to pass the cause on to others.

While each and every person who gave or spread the word at Mary Immaculate let their light shine, two stories stick out in my mind in particular. The first story comes from the family of a student of mine who gave $1,000 to the cause, saying, “This is just something that we really believe in.” Not only that, but more significantly they talked to their children about some of the struggles that kids in places like Compton have to endure. Their daughter, a sixth-grade student of mine this year, then gave twenty dollars of her own money to the cause because she wanted to help. That is letting your light shine.

The other story comes from a fellow staff member at Mary Immaculate, who donated and said, “I wish I could give more, but my husband is out of work right now.” I immediately thought of the story of “The Widow’s Offering” from Luke 21:1-4, where a widow donates a small sum, but is acclaimed by Jesus as being the most generous, for “she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.” Giving fully of yourself, even when you feel that you don’t have much to give… That is letting your light shine.

God was again made visible to me through the love of my fellow ACErs. Every time I get the privilege of reconvening with ACErs after a long hiatus, I’m always blown away at the quality of people that these young men and women truly are, and I am humbled to be counted among them. People like Nic Hermann from LA South Central, who led the charge in organizing the entire weekend, made sure that all of us vagabond runners were taken care of. People like Jenny Yu from Santa Ana, who drove an hour after work on a Friday (peak exhaustion time for a teacher) just so I could have a friendly face pick me up at LAX. People like Seamus Ronan from New York, who flew across the country to run for St. Albert the Great, and Nick Denari from Washington, D.C, who in the midst of his first year of teaching found the time and energy to train like a full-time athlete, leading to his third place finish out of 1,500 plus finishers. People like Alexa Aragon from Brownsville, who was battling tendonitis in her knee, but wanted to help pace her friend Katie Moran of Indianapolis for as long as her knee could hold up. Alexa finished, and oh by the way, placed fifth out of over 600 women, with Katie finishing just ahead of her in fourth. I could go on and on about each of my fellow ACErs, because what all of them did over that weekend, and what each of them do at their schools day in and day out… That is letting your light shine.

Finally, the people of St. Albert the Great let their light shine on all of us that February weekend. I’ve never seen more kind or welcoming smiles than I saw on the faces of the parishioners of St. Albert the Great. I felt so welcome in a place that couldn’t be more different from my hometown of Dubuque, Iowa. That is why I think Fr. Lou DelFra’s homily that night at St. Albert the Great was so relevant. Fr. Lou spoke about light that night; how we are all the light of the world, and how it is sometimes the people considered least significant in our world that have the greatest light to share. As Fr. Lou looked out to the crowd, a collection of people of all colors from all parts of the world, he said, “At St. Albert the Great, you understand that!” Welcoming strangers into your home… Recognizing the light in others, no matter where they come from or what they look like or how much money they have…That is what St. Albert the Great does and continues to do. That is letting your light shine.

Before we left Mass that evening, Fr. Lou called the ACE teachers up to the altar to be recognized, and the community of St. Albert the Great thanked us with a round of applause. As I stood there, looking out at the smiling faces, I couldn’t help but mentally redirect the applause to the people who truly deserved it. To the family in Texas who gave $1,000 to a school over a thousand miles away in Compton, and took the time to teach their children about the importance of giving to those less fortunate than them. To the woman who gave what she could, even when her own family was struggling. To the ACErs standing next to me, who had once again, as they always do, inspired me to be a better person and to let my own light shine. And to a community in Compton, who welcome and love you whether you are from Africa, Mexico, or Dubuque, Iowa. Those people deserved the applause. Those people let their light shine.

So a group of ACE teachers processed out of a church in Compton, California, singing, clapping, and smiling the whole way. “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…

Light- The agent of love within us that stimulates sight and makes God visible.

…let it shine, let it shine, let it shine…”