Emphasis Preaching Journal

"You are all sons of the light and sons of the day." Alexanderos Papaderos was a theologian and educator on the island of Crete. He helped create the Orthodox Academy of Crete, an institute dedicated to human understanding and peace. It overlooks a small airstrip where Nazi paratroopers were attacked by peasants wielding kitchen knives and hay scythes. The German army retaliated with the slaughter of the entire village. The Cretans hated the Germans and vowed never to give up their hatred. The Orthodox Academy was established to heal the wounds of the war. One student of the academy asked Papaderos, "Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?" Laughter followed and people stirred in their seats, anxious to leave. Papaderos looked at the questioner for a long time, asking with his eyes if he was serious and seeing that he was. "I will answer your question." He took from his wallet a small round mirror, the size of a quarter. Then he said, "I was a small child during the war. One day on the road I found some broken pieces of a mirror. I kept the largest piece. This one. I began to play with it and became fascinated that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine -- deep holes, crevices, dark closets. I kept the little mirror and as I became a man I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life -- that I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design I do not know. With what I have, I can reflect light -- truth, understanding, knowledge -- into the black places in the hearts of men and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I do." (from February 1990 issue of Readers' Digest, pages 113-114)
-- Lentz