Mid-December and we are quickly approaching the longest night of the year.  Despite the attempt of the creators of daylight savings time to adjust the hours of the day to increase the amount of workable light, we all know that the actual hours of light have become fewer. The truth of the matter is that we are spending more of our lives in darkness in these mid-December days than at any other time of the year.

This increased time spent in the darkness leads many of us to reflect upon the dark times in our lives. All of us experience darkness: times of loss, grief, suffering, depression, despair, doubt. The natural darkness of these winter days serves only to accentuate and bring to mind and heart the many darknesses we have experienced in our lives.  Darkness can be disconcerting and uncomfortable, and many of us have the impulse to search for and flee into any light that we are able to find.

Of course, our experience of darkness is not unique to us.  It is part of the human condition, and women and men of all ages have experienced the same.  Throughout the Bible we read of the many darknesses and periods of despair in people’s lives.  Moses in the desert.  Joseph in jail.  Jonah in the belly of the big fish.  Daniel in the lion’s den.  Jesus in the tomb.  Paul in prison.  If you are experiencing despair, depression, or doubt in these cold winter days, well, you are in good company. All of the great ones in the Bible are right there with you in the darkness.

The biblical witness, however, is that God is Lord of both the light and the darkness.  There is not a dark place in which we may find ourselves that God is not also there.  Furthermore, God is not just present, but rather, gives us the strength and courage to make our way in the darkness.  Make no mistake, the darkness will still be there, but, as the writer of the Gospel of John says, “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overwhelm it.”  Christ, the Light of the living God, shines in our darkness, and no matter how dark the darkness of our lives, the Light continues to shine forth and show us the path forward.  Darkness and light: they are both of God, and may lead us to a more abiding and life-giving trust in the Source and Creator of all.

Wendell Berry writes of this in his poem To Know the Dark.

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

Our God is the God of both darkness and light.  And so, with courage and bold confidence, we proclaim, Come Darkness!  Come Light!  May God bless you and keep you in these dark days of December.

~Father Art