Good Afternoon Families,
I hope you are all doing well and welcome to the 4th Sunday of Lent. Just a few reminders before I get to the subject...please RSVP for Stations Monday if you have not already done so. We will be meeting in the church rather than have our normally scheduled zoom meeting. We will be sending out a survey within a couple weeks to get your opinions on how this past year went, I am asking each family to please fill it out and return it so we can plan accordingly for next year. I value your opinions and what you think worked and what didn't work. I did have a DRE meeting last week and it seems that most parishes are going to stay remote I am not entirely convinced that we continue this way, possibly doing a more hybrid model with in person meetings scheduled a couple times each month. But of course we will have to wait and see, as soon as we receive any guideline changes from the Diocese I will let you know.
On to the lesson...
Have you ever been afraid of the dark? We all have different understandings of darkness. Sometimes that understanding is just instinctual, like when young children are afraid of the dark. I remember when my children were younger, and they would never want to sleep in their own room without their night light or a closet light. Nobody told them to be afraid, they just were. How many times have you told a scary story in the dark, or played hide and seek in the dark, To young children the darkness represents the unknown and as we all know that can be far more frightening than it is exciting, and so we as parents and caregivers do anything and everything we can to ease that fear or even try and make it go away. Sometimes in our lives we feel a deeper darkness, something that frightens us far beyond our childhood. I am referring to the darkness that becomes part of our daily lives and of our world: for example poverty, gun violence, disease and illness, war, racism, terrorism, depression, anxiety, and even death. Our world and our lives can be chaotic, hectic, and definitely dark. We see suffering in our world and in the lives of those around us and we experience it ourselves. I think more often than not, we want to run away from that kind of darkness. We find ways to tune it out, to numb our experience of it. We push it aside; we sweep it away; we invent new ways to avoid it. But how different our world would be if we didn’t turn toward the darkness? What if we looked at darkness in a new way that we could face it head-on, to be still, be quiet in it, and embrace it as an opportunity to see and welcome the light of Jesus that exists in it?
In the beginning of time, when God created the world, there was darkness. God saw the darkness and chose to do something with it, to make something out of it. In the very first book of the Bible, the book that tells us how God created the world, we read: “Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). In the Latin translation of the Bible, the word fiat is used, and the whole phrase is fiat lux, which translates to “let there be light.” The word fiat means “to do” or “to make”. Fiat is something that is willed by the one doing or making. It isn’t forced, it’s not mandatory. It’s a decision made freely. In reading that phrase of the Bible, fiat lux, “let there be light,” we can begin to understand a new relationship to darkness. In that short but powerful phrase, we realize that God sees the darkness and chaos in our world and in our lives.
All throughout the story of humanity, we realize it is a story of women and men trying to figure out what to do with darkness. This carries on for generations, from Adam and Eve to Abraham, to Isaac, to David, to the prophets, and so on. Some were able to acknowledge the role of darkness in their life and invite God into that experience. Others weren’t so good at doing so. But once again, through it all, God is not uncaring about our darkness. Instead, He sheds light once more. A new Word is spoken, and this Word is incarnate, it is made flesh, in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is God’s response, God’s fiat, to the darkness of our lives.
God knows there’s a lot of darkness we don’t choose. As sure as the dark night that follows the light of day, it happens to us. It is a part of our human experience. But God also knows that some darkness comes as a result of us shutting out any and all light and opting to remain in the dark. We call that sin. Through sin, which is a free human choice, darkness and suffering are made unbearable. But in Jesus Christ, God once again chooses to face darkness head-on. Thanks to Him, we experience freedom from sin. Thanks to His death and Resurrection, we can endure the darkness of our lives, even that darkness of sin that we choose, and in it find the light. If we say yes to Jesus and respond to His sacrificial love for us, then we no longer have reason to choose darkness. Because of Jesus and His light, we no longer have to fear entering into the inevitable darkness that our lives will face.
Through Jesus Christ, God enters into our world to be with us in order to save us. Light is not overcome by the darkness. It is God’s will – God’s “fiat” – that we not fear the darkness of our lives, but rather find Him through it. In our times of difficulty and suffering, that means looking for those small sparks of light, the way that a tiny flame from a small candle can illuminate a large room even if it were in total and complete darkness. And in the darkness of our sin, that means handing it over to the light of the world who is Jesus by repenting, asking for forgiveness through the Sacrament of Confession, and choosing to move in the direction of light from then on.
In the darkness of our lives, we are invited to be still, to be quiet, and to let the light of Jesus Christ guide us in whatever darkness that is overwhelming us. He is the one who is calling you to live unafraid of the darkness. He is calling you to entrust the darkness of your life to Him. He is calling you to wade through the darkness of your life by finding Him and following Him, the light. What darkness can you hand over to Jesus, the light of the world? What pain, suffering, fear, struggle, or sin overwhelms you? I don’t know the answer to those questions, but you do. And Jesus does, too. In every moment, Jesus is asking you not to run away from that darkness. He is asking you not to tune it out, He is asking you to stop pretending it isn’t there or it doesn’t exist. He is asking you not to push aside the darkness; not sweep it away; not avoid it. Instead, He is asking you to face the darkness head-on, knowing that it is not overcome by His light. In this moment, and in all moments, let us welcome Jesus into our darkness and let His Light guide us through it.
