THE LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS AND THE DARKNESS DID NOT OVERCOME IT

Sacred Heart,
Burning in the darkness,
Enflame my heart
With your light and life.

TODAY we are reminded that we have left the European Union.  Some will wave flags; others lament that the vison Sir Winston Churchill had of a ‘United States of Europe’ is, for the time being, dead and buried.  It’s worth reading what he actually said in a famous speech at the University of Zurich three days before I was born – here is an extract (the full speech is here): 

“We must build a kind of United States of Europe (in order) to re-create the European family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. …  Small nations will count as much as large ones and gain their honour by a contribution to the common cause.”

That enlightened call to build a union of hope hope after years of war and centuries of conflict has fallen away and, coupled with the pandemic, it can seem that there’s a shadow over not only Europe at this time but over the whole world.  Words of hope can feel just like that when faced with suffering and loss.

But I’m reminded of other words, words from John’s gospel set for today’s Mass: ‘The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it’.  In the opening verses of his ‘Good News’, John directs attention to the most important news Christianity needs to share, and he does so in the context of a desert, a desert in which John the Baptist appeared which can stand as a metaphor for what many are experiencing at this time.

In a recent article by Fr. Aiden Nicholls OP which appeared in the present issue of the ‘Fairacres Chronicle’, journal of the Sisters of the Love of God, he writes: 

‘A voice cries in the Wilderness, “Prepare a way for the Lord: make his paths straight”.  John the Baptist realises this prophesy by speaking of Jesus: … John can identify the desert of the human condition, can put his finger on the spot where it really hurts, Jesus and Jesus alone can do anything about it.  John knows what we are like: he knows the heart of man; Jesus does too, he had his own wilderness experience; but Jesus is also the heart of God translated into human flesh.  He is not just a human heart he is the Sacred Heart.  And if he is God made man, then he is someone who can reach into our interior desert; by his influence, by his grace, he can reach me in this most cut off of all lands, more cut off than any pole or any jungle’ (p.31).

As we enter a New Year outside of that Union to which we’ve belonged for half a century and continue to face a pandemic that poisons both body and soul that message of John, that the Light has come which darkness cannot overcome, is unique and needs to be held and shared – for in Him there is no darkness at all. 

Sacred Heart,
Burning in the darkness,
Enflame my heart
With your light and life.

_____________________

John-Francis Friendship
December 31st, 2021