“For behold, darkness shall cover the earth … but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. …. So, arise, shine, for your light has come.” What hope and joy these words of Isaiah give us! As we look around the world today, it does in fact seem as if darkness covers much of the earth. It’s a darkness of the mind and heart – which is often blacker than the dark of night itself. The thickening clouds of war and injustice are, sadly, often matched by the clouds which darken our hearts and relationships with God and one another. We can find ourselves having quiet moments of helplessness and despair. Our experience can seem far from the glorious vision of Isaiah or the exceedingly great joy of the Magi as they see the star and anticipate seeing the Light of the World in the manger. But, to use the words of St. John the Beloved, Jesus is the “light which shines out in the darkness and which darkness cannot overpower.” Death surely did seek to snuff Him out; but He rose. And so, in His death, all our darkness died, all our death died. In His rising, all our hope of victory in joy and love arose to eternal fulfilment. Human history awaits these truths to be fulfilled in us. And they will.

So, as believers in Christ, we must never consider the darkness around or within us apart from the One who is the Light of the World around and within us. To do so would be to prefer the darkness and to close our eyes to the Light. Our darkness does not have the last word. The Light has it. The Light is it. He is the living Word of the Father. He brings order out of chaos. The ultimate meaning of all is in Him. We must bring our darkness to the Light of His Word. Knowledge and love of the Gospel are knowledge and love of the Light. With the Gospel in our minds and hearts we have the understanding and the grace to shed the light on our darkness and dispel it, to chase its murky shadows away.

This is as true for the darkness in the world as it is for the darkness in our lives. We sometimes consider the “dark ages” to refer to the 5^th-10^th centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. But, in recent centuries and decades, it could be argued that the darkness has returned, perhaps even more acutely. People talk of the age of enlightenment, built upon the scientific revolution of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, becoming an intellectual and cultural movement in the 18^th century. Its primary emphasis was on the power of human reason over superstition and blind faith. There is no question that this brought immense benefit to human society and forced the Church to improve her way of engaging with the world, one of the main goals of her social doctrine and of Vatican II.

But the downside of the enlightenment was, paradoxically, that it led to a certain endarkenment of the mind, too. It led to the loss of real faith and not just of fake or superficial faith. It contributed to the rise of scientism, which falsely claims that science alone can explain and solve everything. Worse, it favoured materialism and atheism which led to the darkest of all events in the 20^th century, with millions of victims of fascist and communist regimes. The fake light of ideology eclipsed the true Light of Christ. And the new ideologies of our own young century continue to fascinate the human mind with often simplistic and superficial solutions to the complex needs of individuals, societies and nations. God is dead, as Nietzsche proclaimed over 100 years ago and, he added, “we have killed Him.”

Yet, amid it all, we hear reports that in Europe and in the UK, many young adults are turning to Christ. Human achievement and happiness of a purely earthly kind do not begin to satisfy the thirst of the heart. Like the Magi, these young perceive a brighter Star and have set off in pursuit. Many are cradle Catholics, but they have now become manger Catholics. They now actively seek in the manger what was already given to them in the cradle, the true enlightenment that comes with Baptism. We can only wonder and be filled with praise and gratitude to God that, with the Magi, these young people now “rejoice exceedingly with great joy” at the promise of finding the Lord in Bethlehem, in the “House of Bread”, in His Church.

The truth is that we can get used to the cradle. It’s warm, comfortable and we don’t have to do much except let ourselves be fed and “molly coddled”. But the true Light and the Life He brings are in the manger and then in the different places and spaces into which the Child of the manger will enter as He journeys from Mary’s womb to the tomb, and from the tomb to the right Hand of the Father. True seekers of His Light will want to retrace in spirit all His steps and stages during His life on earth. The Mysteries of Christ need to be worked out in anyone who truly believes in Him. That’s what Baptism means. We must all pass through these mysteries, and they must pass through us. What mysteries? The joyful, the luminous, the sorrowful and the glorious. And why must we pass through them? Because our faith is not a transaction or negotiation or subscription to a club. Our faith is total union of life with Christ in all things. Otherwise, His Light cannot shine in and through us nor can we really experience His love or His joy.

You and I, we are called to be Christ’s Epiphany of Light in the times and places His Providence has put us. Christ is not an optional extra for any human being, just as light itself is not an optional extra. He is the measure and fulfilment of every single man and woman who walks this earth. We cannot sensibly set Him aside in any part of our life or in the whole of our life, because He is our life. Without Him, we live in death, no matter how alive we may feel. Without Him, our very light is darkness, and what darkness that will be!

So, let us lift up our hearts and our minds to the Light and Life of the World and experience the exceedingly great joy which the Magi knew. Let’s share, too, in the new-found spirit of seeking Him which motivates so many young adults today. This year let’s resolve to move more and more from the cradle to the manger and follow Christ through all His Mysteries until we behold the beauty of His sublime glory with everlasting, unforgettable joy on our faces.