The Gospel according to St. John introduces Divine Light in its prologue: “In him (Jesus} was life, and the life was the light of the world. The light has shined in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (1:4,5) That’s not in the readings for Sunday, and yet it becomes the thread which weaves through them. Bear it in mind as you listen….
Luke tells an interesting tale in Acts 16: in Philippi, Paul & Co. are met by a young woman who was a mantic, a seer of the “future”. Annoyed by her constant badgering, Paul exorcised the demon (in Greek, a “Python”!) and the girl’s agents saw she could no longer fleece the gullible for their private wealth. So they had Paul & Silas beaten and jailed. You may remember about the earthquake that sprung all the doors of the jail, how the jailer almost killed himself in despair, and about how he & his family believed in Jesus and were baptized. Jailhouse Rocked long before Elvis. But the sentence that leaped out at me was verse 29, “The jailer called for lights…” Darkness was near-death, but affirmation came with the light.
And one last foray into Revelation, for a while: chapter 22, where Jesus names himself “the bright morning star” (v.16) Even when it’s darkest before the dawn, there’s one final celestial gleam which tells the ardent watcher that a New Day is really at hand! When I delivered the Scranton Tribune in the pre-dawn blackness, when the shadows were hostile and the earth had died, I came to search for the Morning Star… Maybe, said I, “maybe today will be better.”
John devotes almost half of his Gospel to Holy Week, and a large chunk of that to the Last Supper. In his long “high priestly” prayer, the Lord says, “the glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.” (v.22) And then again, “I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory…” (v.24) Is not this glory the Holy Light of which we heard back in the Beginning??
Allegories are always difficult: how far shall we spin it without compromising its roots? My own discomfort in deep darkness is cheered to know of the Light in the Garden at the end of the tunnel which is our faith-journey. May the gathering dark not frighten you, nor the gloom of those who oppose Mercy, Justice and Truth. Step in the Light–nay, DANCE in it with the glory of its Source, the Lord Jesus Christ!
God Bless Us, Every One H B King
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