It’s Getting Dark Out There

It’s winter.  

We bring out lights to shine in the darkness!  It’s all part of our religious belief.  Whether we practice religion or no.

Light and dark are to be taken seriously.  Darkness can threaten life. Bad characters in movies are usually in black to imply the power of evil or destruction.  Boo to you Darth Vader….!!

The Hindu festival of Diwali and the Christian festival of Christmas both tackle the power of darkness that surrounds us in life. Christian and Hindu stories intertwine similar portrayals of the evil of darkness and the significance of light to us humans.  

Diwali is a religious festival that celebrates the victory of the god of light over the god of darkness. Light displays, social events and food focus on light in contrast to the darkness.  The god of light kills the god of darkness in this Hindu story.  Light prevails!!!!  Thank God.  Humans cannot live without light.  

Christians draw the same conclusion about the significance of light in their Christmas Story with a twist.  The baby Jesus is born in the darkness of ‘mid winter’ so the carols sing! And accounts of Jesus’ birth story is one of light illuminating in the darkness.  

There is no violence in the Christian story.  The Christian God of light does not kill the god of darkness.  In fact, there is no god of darkness to kill from the Christian perspective.  Darkness is not the dominion of any god.  It is never destroyed nor killed.  Darkness is overcome by turning on the light.   It literally disappears when light appears.  And we humans play a role of bringing the God of light into the human arenas of darkness. This is not a battle of the gods.  It is a challenge for humans to recognize light and to share it. Isn’t it refreshing to see light in the midst of darkness?The Hindu perspective recognizes the violence of our world as depicted in the violence of the gods.  The gods kill each other as humans do.  And we give thanks that the good god prevails.  May the good god of light always prevail.  

The Christmas story focuses on the human desire for life and peace in the world. Angel choirs sing to poor shepherds of ‘peace and goodwill’. Divine messengers bring good news of God’s human presence among us in spite of the violence within the human experience.  

This theme of peace is a thread that begins in the creation stories and is integral to the Christmas story.  The God of creation makes everything from chaotic matter and describes it as good when the living spring from it.  There are no warring gods to decide who is the most powerful.  There is no other power!  This creative God is all powerful and yet pacific.  And when God determines to create, it is done so without harming or destroying other forces.  This sentiment pours out from the globally sung Christmas carol  ‘Silent Night’.  The song is loved by people of many religions:

‘All is calm.  All is bright. Sleep in heavenly peace.”

The God of light offers light to hope and human possibility.  

We are tempted to ignore religious story and adopt a corrupted view where the evil god of the world needs to be killed and destroyed over and over. In such a world, evil has new emissaries every day and they must be weeded out before they take control. Or we live by a corrupted Christian view where the world is darkness and light does not enter.  Evil is like the cloud cover that never lifts. We blindly continue in the darkness fighting the conspiracy of darkness.  Nothing much we can do! So it implies.

Either corruption encourages us to view others with suspicion.  What kind of emissaries are these ‘others’ I see?  They walk the streets and I don’t recognize them.  They drive in my neighborhood and I don’t “recognize the car”.  I cannot trust them in the darkness of my world.

The world of darkness accepts suffering and death as ‘fait accompli’.  Darkness seeks to divide us.  Warring factions kill on command.  Refugees are abandoned on land borders or left to drown in oceans.  Resignation is granted to prejudice and hatred of others for race, origin, language, social place. Darkness makes us powerless to foment change, feel safe or that we can intervene.  This is the world of darkness which we pop in and out of daily, mentally and spiritually.  

I prefer to see light brought into our midst so we can see more clearly.  It provides the hope that the world can be transformed. I want to know why my neighbor is so angry and troubled.  Doing so would help me understand why I am angry also.  I am part of the transformation from darkness into light.  One can never see darkness. One can only recognize the dark life when light overcomes it.  May we see light dissipate the darkness! 

Silent night, holy night

Son of God, oh, love’s pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord at Thy birth

Have a meaningful season of light and a Blessed Christmas!