Every day now since December 21, there is one more minute of sun for us to enjoy. Now two weeks later, winter has gotten into our bones. She is extending some invitations: to quiet ourselves, to hibernate a little longer within the inner cave, to search more attentively for the light in people around us and in tramping out into the winter air and brush-filled woods.
It seems to me that winter wants to toughen and train us to “walk in darkness” throughout these difficult times in our country and in our world. Winter, too, can reveal pockets of light we weren’t aware of before.
Photo of “Light Shower,” by artist Bruce Munro. Photo courtesy of Derek Bruff/Creative Commons
Forty-five years ago, one of our great American Christian spiritual writers, Frederick Buechner, said in a Christmas homily:
“In one respect if in no other this metaphor of Isaiah’s (“walking in darkness”) is a very relevant one for us and our age because we are also, God knows, a people who walk in darkness. … If darkness is meant to suggest a world where nobody can see very well — either themselves , or each other, or where they are heading, or even where they are standing at the moment; if darkness is meant to convey a sense of uncertainty, of being lost, of being afraid; if darkness suggests conflict, conflict between races, between nations, between individuals each pretty much out for himself when you come right down to it, then we live in a world that knows much about darkness…
“And in our single lives we know much about darkness too. If we are people who pray, darkness is apt to be a lot of what our prayers are about. If we are people who do not pray, it is apt to be darkness in one form or another that has stopped our mouths.”
I need not list the woes, the horrible tragedies of our times that suggest an opaqueness surrounding and invading not only the hearts of many of our leaders but likewise our own spirits. However, just as we enjoy a minute more of light each day, there is light coming through the tunnel in some significant areas that have been occupying our national attention.
Ferguson, Cleveland, New York have illuminated a longstanding problem of profiling by police forces across the country toward the African-American male. Much has yet to be sorted through by systems that lack accountability for their “miscalculations” and their one-too-many inexplicably rash actions. But, finally, a glimmer of light and hope have dawned for the African-American and other communities of color.
Pope Francis brings a touch of brilliant light to the church. Photo by Paul Haring/Catholic News Service.
Pope Francis, too, wherever he goes, brings a torch of brilliant light that reflects off the faces of the poor and other people cast aside by society. He walks radiantly among the people on the margins. His words ring out loudly into places which have long become hollow-sounding. His energy of presence brings jubilation and smiles to people hungry for a church leader who identifies with them, who is humble and amazingly astute in his simplicity. His magnetism pulls people of all stripes toward him because he displays no airs, no pomp, no efforts to impress. He is simply Francis.
It feels like spring cleaning and a longed-for renewal in the church, reinvigorating the people. Out with the cobwebs! Clean out the drawers and files and stacks of meaningless, worthless codes and policy statements which have cluttered and confused the common people. Allow the best of church community to ring forth into this new year.
Immigrants who have acted as normal citizens of our country for decades and have been rounded up and deported now have a louder voice and are urging changes throughout our culture.
Though there’s no question about the U.S.’s military industrial complex, war advocates’ voices have begun to be more muffled. Violence upon violence upon violence is being questioned more seriously and people want other answers to international conflict. Perhaps the words of Martin Luther King Jr. are beginning to take on flesh: “Violence is a downward spiral.”
And finally in an issue close to my heart, the prisoners of Guantanamo are slowly being released. Since November 2014, 20 men have been released, not to their own countries but to areas where they have no ties and to countries willing to accept them. Still they are released — from a place in which they have suffered terribly through torture, with no charges, with long absences from their families and country. Witness Against Torture and many others are pressing on, working for the release of all 120 men still detained.
LIGHT will not fail us in this new year!