From Darkness to Light

There is something totemic about comets. They are bearers of things. They hold in themselves something of the stuff of creation, assuming they survive their close encounter with the sun without being vapourised. They embody something of ourselves, the DNA of existence, perhaps. I have not yet seen the comet Ison and we are not sure when or where our household here in this beautiful valley in South Wales should be on the lookout for it, allowing for cloud cover. There is very little light pollution here, so we simply wait and hope for a sighting of this fiery beauty before it returns to the darkness of deep space. 

While thinking about the comet I thought about Syria and the devastation there, the wounded and tortured children, the complete absence of anything which could make it possible for a society to function with the normality most of us take for granted. Syria is darkness. I also thought about Iran and the talks which have taken place recently in Geneva where leaders have sat down and sought with determination a way out of the darkness of enmity, an enmity which has brought hardship and suffering to a great number of people in all the countries involved. Iranians have endured siege conditions of varying magnitude for over 30 years. Their neighbours, as well as the rest of us, have never grown used to living with the fear of nuclear terrorism.  Both of these situations pertain to the realm of darkness.

Enmity is darkness. It is a state of being in which we actively refuse to see or acknowledge others, as they exist and suffer in their own darkness. It is a situation without hope in which we are thrown back upon ourselves and back into ancient hatreds. The darkness of enmity is as near to hell as it is possible to imagine.

Darkness can engulf even the best of situations, where good is the overall objective, as when the lights go out in a room while a doctor is in the middle of a life saving operation on a battle field or in a disaster zone. There is no one to turn the lights on again, or no power available and no more anaesthetic with which to complete the operation without the patient suffering unbearable pain. Confusion, corruption and lawlessness. Another state of darkness. The world is in this kind of darkness. 

Last night I attended a very beautiful Advent service in one of our local parish churches. It began in darkness out of which came the sound of voices singing out the world’s longing for the coming of a Saviour, for light in our darkness. The sound of the voices embodied light, if such a thing is imaginable. It embodied the light of hope. Hope was made real, tangible and sacramental, or holy, in a community coming together in this ancient building, as others have done before them for thousands of years, to bear witness to the reality of the light which is Jesus come into the world. He has come, and will come again, not to magic away all suffering but to take away enmity and despair. Despair is the real darkness, but it has not overcome the light. Because of the coming of Christ, and his taking into himself our human nature, it never will.