THE LORD IS MY LIGHT ~By: N. Neihsial
‘Dominus Illuminatio Mea’, the Lord is my light says David the famous king of the Jews. In the same line, Jesus says ‘I am the light of the world: whosoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’ 2. In the Holy Bible, one finds the mentioning of ‘Light’ of not less than 76 times in vari-ous context. Sometimes God identify Himself as ‘light’, some-times compares and exhorts the believers as light of the world etc. This fact, perhaps emphasis that how light is so important for human beings for existence and progress.
Light could be philosophically classified into: the physical light, the intellectual light and spiritual light. When the Bible talks about light, one tends to think only in terms of physical light. But the fact of the matter is that Jesus uses the physical light only as illustration to explain the real light he is talking about, the inner light which is the muted combination of intel-lectual and spiritual light. This is really what is needed by men for his continued existence and progress in life in physical world as well.
One day I was surfing the internet sites and I came upon the website of the Oxford University. When I went through the board contents, I noticed the above line. The motto of the Uni-versity, to my utter surprise and excitement is: ‘The Lord is my light’. It was rather strange thing for me that world famous University noted for its outstanding achievements in secular education and various intellectual fields could have this line as its motto.
The Oxford University is the second oldest surviving Univer-sity in the world and the oldest in the English speaking world. It is also repeatedly adjudged the best or the second best amongst the top ten universities. Its exact date of establish-ment is not known but formal teaching was already recorded to have started in the year 1096. It grew rapidly from 1167 af-ter the students from England were banned or expelled from the University of Paris. Since its inception the University has produced 26 British Prime Ministers and 30 international fig-ures including the King of Norway, King Abdullah of Jordan, 3 Prime Ministers of Australia, 2 Prime Ministers of Canada, 2 Prime Ministers of India (Mrs. Indira Gandhi & Dr. Manmohan Singh), 4 Prime Ministers of Pakistan, Mr. Bill Clinton, the for-mer president of USA and Aung Sang Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
In addition to the above public political figures, the univer-sity also has produced 12 saints, 20 Archbishops including John Wesley the founder of the world reputed Methodist churches. The Oxford has more than 50 athletes of gold medalist of the Olympic games. How about the academic achievements which is the main stay of the University? It has produced so far 50 Nobel Laureates with the break up of: Physics - 5, Peace - 5, Medicine - 15, Economics - 9, Chemistry - 11 and Literature - 5.
When one goes through the list of its outstanding achieve-ments, one can’t help but think that “could be that Oxford is so outstanding and long lasting only because its motto is taken from the Bible : The Lord is my light? The Lord really seems to give intellectual and spiritual lights to the Oxford University. Otherwise, how could a single University be surviving nearly 1000 years and still going strong and producing such alumni of outstanding personalities at the global level? Therefore, let us think it more seriously how to make the Lord can be the light of our lives who shall give us not only the physical light but more importantly the intellectual and spiritual lights in our individual and collective life.
1 Psalms 27:1
2 St. John 8:12
[Article by Pu N. Neihsial, IDAS | First published in GOSPEL DAICHIM, Volume 5, Issue No. 6/ June 2012, p. 3 | Reproduced with permission].
Article from the same author: Am I one of the endangered species?