M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

Receiving the Light of Easter
By Darla Isackson

Norman Vincent Peale once told a story of a man standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon just before sunup. It was dark and cold; everything was gray and formless — as he felt his life had been. When the sun cleared the canyon rim, light poured into that amazing chasm. The man had a sudden feeling that the darkness had been an illusion, that only the light was real, and that we are all part of the light.

I suspect there is profound truth in his feeling; darkness is powerless before light.

Darkness simply cannot exist in the presence of light. The English poet Coventry Patmore stressed the importance of having the courage not to deny in the darkness what you have seen in the light. What have I seen in the light? What have you seen? What has the light revealed to me about my life’s dark canyons? What has the Spirit witnessed to me in my best, most spiritual moments?

Easter is a time of increasing light and renewal of life. It comes when I have become most weary of the dark cold dreariness of winter. It comes as a testimony of He who is the source of light. “And whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (D&C 84:45).

Receiving More Light

In an email from my friend Ed McCormack he quoted D&C 59:24:

That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

I thought of the symbolism of the temple when he suggested that the light within and around us gets brighter and brighter until eventually we can go through the veil into the presence of the Lord. He believes that more light is gathered within as we participate in gospel ordinances and that each time we feel the Holy Ghost we are experiencing a touch of Celestial glory because the Holy Ghost dwells in the Celestial kingdom.

The Qualities of Light Reveal Much about the Lord’s Character

Thinking about the qualities of light helps us understand more about the qualities of the Source of light. Light does not impose or make demands or coerce or demand change. Light just is — it shines independently, whether those it shines on acknowledges it or not. When it goes unnoticed it does not cease shining — the truth that is the source of its brightness continues to warm and enlighten and edify the giver of light, so the light does not dim.

Light does not give in a way that decreases itself for the giving, or demand that those given to become more like it. It invites the receiver to see more clearly what it is already there, to appreciate it in a new way. Light illuminates flaws and sins unseen in darkness — but always with the invitation to forgiveness and peace.

Light chases away shadows, not by attacking or criticizing darkness; its very presence diminishes darkness. Light clarifies options. Light warms and encourages growth. Light sends out a call to buried hopes, dormant potential, that says, “you can do it — you can germinate, you can push through the ground, you can send forth stems, then leaves, then buds, then blossoms.

Easter is such a perfect symbol of all that — and of the glorious light we are promised on the Other Side.

How the Concept of Light Applies to Death

Some people have thought of death as a dark door, when actually it is “a rainbow bridge of light spanning the gulf between two worlds,” as Peale says. The Easter message is all about that bridge of light. In John 11:25 we read, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

We are foreordained with the right to be touched with the Light of Christ, to have a genuine choice based on knowledge of truth. D&C 84:45 begins with, “The word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light.”

Ed McCormack also expressed the thought that, “The circumstances of passing from this life are not material because of the Atonement.” He reminded me of Bruce R. McConkie’s landmark talks, where he made it clear that you don't have to close the ideal-real gap in order to have eternal life. You only have to be moving in the right direction. If we receive the light of the Holy Ghost with all our hearts and continue to do so until the end of our mortal life then, no matter how far along the path we were at the time of our death, we will eventually make it to our goal. It is the grace of the Atonement and our choice to accept that grace that eventually makes us heirs of the Celestial Kingdom.

It seems that a very central purpose of life is to receive the Holy Ghost — the Savior’s emissary of His light to us.

Sometimes our willingness to receive it fully is greatly enhanced by life-threatening adversity or the death of a loved one.

The Light of the Comforter

In retrospect, how I treasure the light that has poured into my heart in my darkest hours. How grateful I was to receive the light of the Comforter in the halls of a hospital in a life and death situation, another time when I received news of my father’s death (I had left my vigil at his side only two hours before), and ten years later when my mother received a visitation (in her room in my home) telling her she would pass from this life in three weeks’ time.

Those three weeks were some of the most light-filled I have ever lived. It was as though the angels attended her and gave us all strength and peace. And I never felt the light of the Spirit stronger than the day I spent some solitary hours by her coffin in the funeral home and was shown the beauty and majesty of my mother’s spirit self. I always loved her, but never truly knew her until that day. I learned that her weaknesses were totally eclipsed by the gentle faithfulness of her spirit. I was tutored by the Spirit that day. My heart swells with gratitude for those experiences as I recall them.

I’ve heard so many times, “Be true to the light you have and you will receive more light.” How I want to be true to the amazing light I have received so I may receive yet more.

Easter Light for Those Who Grieve

Easter has so many messages of light for those who grieve. In D&C Section 137, the Prophet Joseph records his vision of his brother Alvin and reveals the doctrine of salvation for the dead:

“All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God ... For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desires of their hearts” (D&C 137: 7, 9).

This doctrine has brought me great light and hope and comfort in regard to the death of my son.
Brother McCormack shared his belief with me that, “No matter where we die in the process of receiving the light that comes from Christ through the Holy Ghost — if we would have received it with all our hearts had we understood it, it will be as if we had actually done so. The Lord knows all our hearts. If we would have received the Holy Ghost and would have kept following it to the end of our mortal lives (Mosiah 4:6) we will be heirs to the kingdom.

“The only question in regard to your son Brian,” he said, “is what was in his heart? Would he have received the Holy Ghost with all his heart if he had understood? The Lord knows him well enough to know his heart and what his choices would be.”

I feel assured that each person will have the opportunity — in the next life if they don’t get it here (see D&C 138) — apart from anyone or any circumstance in mortality that influenced them — to be touched by the Spirit and to make a decision according to light and truth — not according to the ways they have been deceived in mortality. How grateful I am for the light I find in that assurance.

Easter Triumph

I received an Easter greeting card from a friend that contained a verse by A.S. Sullivan that touched my heart: “Earth her joy confesses, clothing for her spring, All fresh gifts returned with her returning King; Bloom in every meadow, leaves on every bough, Speak his sorrow ended, hail his triumph now.”

The greatest message of Easter is that Christ did triumph over death. How grateful I am for Easter’s message of the light of the resurrection. Because of the Savior, light and life will always triumph over darkness and death. Praise be to His Holy Name. Only light is real, all light comes from Him, we can make the choice to be part of that light.

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