“Loving Darkness.”
“The darkness shall not hide from You; the night shines as the day. The darkness and light are both the same to You.” Psalm 139
“We need a light that has retained its kinship with the darkness. For we are sons and daughters of the darkness and of the light.” John O’Donahue[i]
We are moving into darkness. Perhaps you are already there?
With the time change in the U.S. darkness will be more present, covering us like a cloak. The days shorten and herald the grand entrance of the Winter Solstice.
Having just observed Halloween we are reminded of the metaphorical darkness that surrounds us, not just in the sense of a fun-loving macabre holiday distinguished and decked out by costumes and candy, but of the all-too-real ghosts, ghouls, and goblins who make evil their life, and death, and do their best work in darkness.
And of course, lest we forget, we are each moving inevitably and inextricably toward the great unknown darkness of death.
From the time we were children death was our acquaintance, our constant companion. We were conceived in darkness. We were shaped and formed in the complete darkness of our mother’s womb. We loved darkness, felt safe and warm in it—it was the cold, blinding light that was a stranger. That is, until our eyes were opened and we were fully aware that the darkness represented separation, and we began to fear what we could not see.
As adults we have spent time in figurative darkness. Times when we were lost, disoriented, unable to find our way. Perhaps you are there now?
I believe that what the darkness truly represents is the lack of love. Being put to bed alone as a baby was a separation from the source of love. Meeting the evil that lurks in the darkness fills us with fear, and fear is the antithesis of love. Falling into the kaleidoscopes of life’s darknesses hurts so horribly because it is a time when we feel like objects unworthy of love. Thus, the antidote for darkness is not light, but love. Light is the conductor for Love. And the challenge is to discover the light of God’s love in the very midst of the darkness.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John The Christ is called The Light. But what gives Christ His brilliance is the illuminosity of Divine Love. It is the primordial love that burns so brightly and brilliantly that darkness in whatever form cannot extinguish it. This love knows no bounds. It not only shines in the darkness, but actually inhabits it. This is the illustrative lesson found in the three hours of darkness on Good Friday. The poignant story of Christ’s betrayal in darkness illustrates so beautifully that Divine Love goes everywhere and anywhere, and not only overcomes darkness, but befriends it as well.
Perhaps that is our challenge? Not to run from the darkness. Not to hide from the darkness. Not to fear the darkness. But to befriend it. To allow the full radiancy of Divine Love to shine into it, to shine into us, to shine through us.
“When the human mind began to consider the next greatest mystery of life, the mystery of love, light was also always used as a metaphor for its power and presence. When love awakens in your life, in the night of your heart, it is like the dawn breaking within you. Where before there was anonymity, now there is intimacy; where before there was fear, now there is courage; where before in your life there was awkwardness, there now is a rhythm of grace and gracefulness; where before you used to be jagged, now you are elegant and in rhythm with your self. When love awakens in your life, it is like a rebirth, a new beginning.[ii]”
[i] “Anam Cara; A Book of Celtic Wisdom.” P. 4
[ii] IBID p. 5