I will confess that when people say “back in the day” I think about a long time ago, say 50 or more years. So here we go: back in the day, my brother and I would play outside until it was one step beyond dusk. Yes, we had electricity and lights but outside was……well outside and boys really do hate to come in before dark. In those twilight hours, my brother and I could be found playing baseball, basketball in the back yard and even an occasional pick -up football game. It would be getting hard to see and still, we kept playing.
It was always a real possibility to get hit by the ball because we never saw it coming or miss making a basket because we misjudged the distance in the dark. All of that is really familiar and those memories provide a warm feeling all of these years later. Those twilight times taught us not to be afraid of the dark and taught us to look more closely and see more clearly. Still today, I tend to notice things at twilight that others miss.
This is also a description of the spiritual life. We all fear the darkness when it comes to our interior spiritual life. We want to be sure, to know what is right, to have proof but that is not faith. Just like playing ball at twilight, as you become comfortable with less light, your vision improves. And so it is with this spiritual life we all crave. We fear not knowing, of being uncertain and yet, when we embrace the “darkness” we embrace a deeper faith. A faith that is not only comfortable with not knowing but actually feels relieved by not having to know. This is the faith that is expressed by the old saying, “faith is walking to the very edge of all of the light you have and then taking one more step”.
As I write this, it is the beginning of Advent. That time when the physical world rushes to its darkest and shortest days. We are all moving into darkness but it is the darkness of anticipation, of hope, and yes, growing faith that at the end of these weeks of Advent, the Light of the World will once again come to us all. Instead of getting caught up in avoiding the deepening darkness by shopping, noise, and continuous movement, what if we all worked on our night vision? What if we all welcomed and embraced the dark as simply the other part of life? That place where we have no choice but to look and listen more carefully. This is Bethlehem for each of us, the place where faith is born, the place where the light in our lives begins to shine in the darkness and the darkness does not understand it.
TMM