by Blair Paterson
Christ United Church, Chesterville
I have to admit that we are entering my favourite time of year. As northern lands grow darker with the tilt of the earth, we compensate by adding more light to our life. Evening by evening, it seems another house turns on their Christmas lights; and the night becomes less dark. In their last few years of me driving them to dance lessons, my daughters and I had a ritual of counting the houses with their festive lights on. It would begin just after Remembrance Day with a few “early adopters”, but by month’s end it would be in the 40s and 50s – this along country roads. You can only really see those holiday lights when it’s dark out; or on Christmas Eve, seeing candlelight shining through stained glass
There is another kind of darkness. It shows itself in many guises: depression, guilt, loneliness, loss. It seems as the sun hides itself at this season, our lives seems to dim too, and the weight of the dark threatens to overwhelm us. Maybe I am too much in the dark; maybe I’m just sensitive to it because of what I do. But whatever the reason, I feel a draw towards the dark: a gentle, but persistent, pull. Some of us think that this dark-tide is “evil” or “wrong” or something to be overcome. But so many mystics (or lunatics!) and even old C.G. Jung remind us that the Shadow is not separate from us, but a part of the human condition, and we ignore it at our own peril.
After the Holocaust, Rabbis and many ordinary Jews (and non-Jews) asked one damning question: a question asked by Pope Benedict XVI as he stood in Auschwitz “Where was God in those days?” There were some words were written in a cellar where hundreds of Jews hid from Nazi terror. They were discovered not long after the end of the war. They were inscribed by some unknown person likely killed in Dachau or Triblinka, but they spark a bit of light into the dark:
– I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
– I believe in love even when I cannot feel it.
– I believe in God even when He is silent.
As we continue our trek through the November night lands, soon our old earth will be tilting again towards the sun. And slowly, oh so slowly, the light will re-emerge (as it always has). Remember, a single candle’s flame can be seen over a mile away in total darkness. Be that light for someone struggling in the dark.
“There’s a dark side to each and every human soul. We wish we were Obi-Wan Kenobi, and for the most part we are, but there’s a little Darth Vader in all of us. Thing is, this ain’t no either-or proposition. We’re talking about dialectics, the good and the bad merging into us. You can run but you can’t hide. My experience? Face the darkness. Stare it down. Own it. As brother Nietzsche said, being human is a complicated gig. So give that ol’ dark night of the soul a hug and Howl the eternal “Yes!” – Chris Stevens from the TV show “Northern Exposure”