FAITH AND CULTURE
Thinking out loud
BY CANON ALISTAIR M. DOYLE
T
here are some people who like Winter but l am not one of them. It's not the cold or frost (although snow is a different proposition). No, I object to the short days, the lack of light. Here in the north of Scotland daylight does not begin until midmorning and by 3.30 pm it is fading fast. This dislike of winter darkness may explain in part why Christmas does nothing for me. My friends whoop with glee for Christmas but, like the garden, my soul lies quietly. Now Easter is a cause for joy and my soul praises the Lord. Botanists say that what prompts plants and bulbs to show signs of life is not the heat of the sun but the light of lengthening days. To see the snowdrops and the bulbs begin to burst through the cold soil is an Easter in miniature. As from the cold dark earth plant life begins to show, so from the dark, barren tomb Life sprang forth. In Genesis Light was the first of God's creation: "the raging ocean was engulfed in darkness and God said: Let there be Light." (Genesis 1:2) St John tells us: "God is Light and in Him is no darkness.” Commentators tell us that since Plato philosophers have used the imagery of light to describe goodness and truth. But before Plato, the Assyrians thought of darkness as the work of an evil god whose disciples did evil in the dark. The world was a place of conflict between light and darkness, symbols of good and evil. In Old Testament thought God is not only Light but His Light is a way of life, and to walk in His Light is to follow the path of holiness. Psalm 27 begins "The Lord is my light and my help, l will fear no one. The Lord protects me from all danger.” and Psalm 8:108 "Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light
“As from the cold dark earth plant life begins to show, so from the dark, barren tomb Life sprang forth.” for my path." On the other hand Psalm 88 ends: “You have made me without friends and darkness is my company.” In St. John's Prologue we read “TheWord was the source of Life and this Life brought Light to mankind. The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out.” In the discourse with Nicodemus John 3:19 "the light has come into the world but people love the darkness because their deeds are evil. Whoever does what is true comes to the light.” The Risen Christ as our Light is evident not only in the Gospels but in the liturgy. Lex orandi, lex credendi1. The whole thesis of the Easter Vigil is Chist our Light who conquers the darkness of sin. St. John Damascene (750 AD) wrote: all the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying from his light, to whom we give laud and praise undying The symbolism of Easter as Light overcoming darkness has been captured in modern literature by authors such as Conrad The heart of Darkness and C.S. Lewis in the Narnia books The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A modern French writer, Yolande Weibel, in her book Espérances has a poem Dawn – “The night-nurse knows well that the dawn will chase away the night. A beam of light filters beneath the door, its power chases away her doubts and loneliness. Tomorrow is here, this is a new day, a day of never ending hope." (my translation). Nor must we forget J.H.Newman: "Lead kindly Light amid the encircling gloom, Lead thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home, Lead thou me on.” These musings can have no better ending than a Catholic Easter blessing: The Lord of the empty tomb, the conqueror of gloom, Come to you The Lord in the Upper Room, dispelling fear and doom, Come to you The Lord in the garden walking-the Lord to Mary talking, Come to you The Lord on the road to Emmaus, the Lord giving hope to Thomas, Come to you The Lord appearing on the shore giving us life for evermore, Come to you 1 Lex orandi, lex credendi is a principle in Catholic teaching. It simply means you can deduce what the Church believes from how the Church prays Page 27