Dec 21 The Challenge and The Light

“The issue is now clear. It is between light and darkness, and everyone must choose his side.”
— reported last words of G. K. Chesterton

Write our Dominican friends:

Today, on the shortest day of the year, the liturgy calls Christ the Dayspring, the Radiant Dawn. He truly is the Light which comes bursting into our darkness and shows us the way of holiness and peace. And while He calls Himself the light of the world, He also tells us that in him we are the light of the world. We receive this light at Baptism, when the candle is lit from the Easter candle, and the celebrant states, “Receive the light of Christ.” Our vocation as disciples of Christ is to spread this light to the world, to allow the brilliant light of Christ’s love to shine through us so that those who have not yet been enlightened will come to know His love and forgiveness. Of course, in order to spread that light to others, we must be open to receiving it ourselves, and we must strive to live a life of virtue and grace. Christmas is often called a season of light, so as we gaze upon the beautiful lights all around us, may they serve as a reminder to us that we, too, are called to shine with the light of Christ. May He grant us the grace to receive His light ever more intensely, so that we may help to bring Christ’s light to the world, just as Our Lady did, when the Star of Bethlehem shone down.

O Dayspring, Brightness of the everlasting light, Son of justice, come to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death!

et lux in tenebris lucet et tenebrae eam non conprehenderunt…
erat lux vera quae inluminat omnem hominem venientem in mundum/

And the light shineth in darkness: and the darkness did not comprehend it.
That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world./

As I wrote just this morning: The challenge is to believe in the Light-from-Light, and to hold it before you. The darkness does not overcome it.