IN THE DARK
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “In The Dark.”
Sometimes we are in the dark; sometimes we feel like we’re in the dark.
Life is both light and darkness. No kidding!
We’ve seen the Chinese philosophy symbol of the ying-yang black and white circles - complementary opposites - each having the opposite within - both sides part of the whole. If it’s daylight here, it’s night darkness there - changing over and over again as the earth revolves around the sun.
Light needs dark and dark needs light. We appreciate Caravaggio and Rembrandt's paintings - many of which have light in faces - and light that glows especially because there are shadows and dark areas in the rooms the characters are featured in.
The Calling of Saint Matthew [1599-1600] Caravaggio [1571-1610]
The Night Watch [1640-1642] by Rembrandt [1606-1669]
The title of my homily is, “In The Dark.”
Hopefully, a homily sheds some light. I’m not so sure about this one - because this topic has a lot of stuff in it which - I’m very much in the dark about.
Perhaps that’s the reason I find myself repeating over and over again what the Talmud says, ‘”Teach thy tongue to say, ‘I do not know.’”
TODAY’S READINGS
We heard in today’s first reading: “I form the light, and create the darkness….” [Cf.
Isaiah 45: 6-8, 18, 21-25]
Don’t we love the opening words of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God’s spirit hovered over the water. God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. God called light ‘day’ and darkness he called ‘night’. Evening came and morning came: the first day.” [
Genesis 1: 1-5]
“Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to begin….”
Sometimes we see - we have answers - and sometimes we feel like we’re in the dark and so we go to Jesus with questions - as we heard John the Baptist do in today’s gospel. [Cf.
Luke 7: 18-23]
THE FEAST OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS
Today - December 14 - is the feast of St. John of the Cross - and one of his major themes is the dark - as in the Dark Night of the Soul.
In this homily, let me present a few fragments of what I hear Saint John of the Cross saying - especially his ideas about darkness.
It’s not original with him - it’s a theme that we find in Christian Spirituality - down through the years.
If we pray, hopefully we pray, “Let there be light!”
But sometimes the light doesn’t go on at our command!
So if we pray, we know about the darkness of God in prayer.
“Where are you, God? Where are you? I feel like you’re keeping me in the dark.”
I pray and my prayer is filled with distractions. I pray and I feel like I’m talking to myself. I pray - but it seems like mumblings - or whistling in the dark - and I’m the only one in a dark alley - or a dark valley - or in a dark night - or in a very dark universe.
If you know about all this, you know the Psalms. They are filled with screams and yells to God - they are the history of people down through the years praying to know where God is - especially when the valley we’re traveling though is dark - and we’re wondering and wandering like lost sheep without a Good Shepherd.
Having conducted lots and lots of retreats for 14 years in two different retreat houses - also having taught Spirituality for 9 years to men who were hoping to become Redemptorists - 9 classes - each of which took a year and a day - as a Novice Master - one task was to teach others how to pray - so I know about this theme of Darkness when it comes to prayer.
So once more, , “Teach thy tongue to say, ‘I do not know.’”
The beginner of prayer - if he or she is just saying prayers - doesn’t come to the Night - the Darkness - issue right away.
At first - all is bright - light - “honeymoonish” - the stuff of beginning - excitement - as in marriage - as in any new job - as in having a new car - the first week at college, moving into a new home - or what have you.
As Blaise Pascal put it, “Things are always at their best in the beginning.”
Then time takes away the newness…. and the newness becomes oldness. The light of day hits noon - and the so called, “Noonday Devil” starts walking with us on the long journey.
An as we continue the shadows of afternoon move into the dark of evening and night.
In time dryness - boredom - emptiness - aloneness - arrives.
It’s night.
The beginner feels at first the Dark Night of the Senses - then the middler feels the Dark Night of the Soul.
The Dark Night of the Senses has to do with the Spiritual that hits us through our 5 senses. The Dark Night of the Soul - now that’s the down deep inner Black of God - the Black Hole of God - whom some atheists - don’t realize they are at black door of God - and miss his knock (Oops that’s an ear metaphor - hearing - something that goes with the Dark Night of the Senses).
Flashes of light appear from time to time - moments of consolation arrive at times - insights - inner lights go on - but from what I learned from 51 years of Religious life - and prayer - most of the life of prayer is darkness.
Sorry - if you don’t know that yet.
Beginners - as in marriage need consolation. They need rich rewarding experiences of light. Then when they are long on the journey - they get to know and experience that they don’t know what’s around the corner. Then they discover that walking in the dark - is how God operates - that God is so often a Night God.
In the meanwhile we have statues and stained glass windows - candles and music - spoken prayers - but in time, the honeymoon is over and we enter the life of faith.
In due time we understand the words of St. Paul in
2 Corinthians 2: 5, “We walk by faith and not by sight.”
In due time we can understand and learn why the Muslims didn’t want images in their mosques. It’s the same reason we have iconoclasts - those who break and destroy religious images - or their use in veneration. It’s the same reason the Jewish people were opposed to the use of God’s name - and proclaimed the first two commandments:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.”
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.”
Make an object a God - and you’ll always have iconoclasts. Luther thought that statements by preachers like Johann Tetzel about Indulgences went too far - as if we humans could dictate how God is. Raising money to renovate Saint Peter’s in Rome with statements about what you’ll get for your money was too much for some Reformers.
Make the Bible more than it is - and you’ll also have iconoclasts.
Don't we get angry or frustrated or what have you, when someone says what we think or who we are - and we know they are totally in the dark about us?
Life is tricky. Relationshiop are tricky. People are tricky.
Religion is also tricky stuff - because religion is not about stuff - as it's about relationships.
Spiritual teachers - like John of the Cross - teach that when you think you have God - you probably don’t - and when you feel like you’re in the Dark - you might very well be in God.
Hey we don’t see all the stars up there - in the light - only in the night. They are always there, but we don’t always see them. We can be blinded by the light.
So keep praying. Keep walking by faith - and every once and a while the light goes on - and when we get to heaven - who knows what we’ll see?
The scriptures say there will no longer be any night. We’ll see.
CONCLUSION
This sermon is a first draft and I’m dabbling in the dark a bit - but on purpose. I like the night for praying more than the day - always have - but others are just the opposite.
Moreover in spirituality, there is not only the so called “kataphatic” “with images” - “the via positiva” approach to mysticism and prayer - but there is also the “apophatic” - without images - “the via negativa” - to empty oneself of images - and in doing so one can also move into God.
Eastern mysticism - and Oriental mysticism - and meditation techniques have a voice here - along with Neo-Platonist writers like Pseudo-Dionysius - who stressed emptying oneself to meet God.
Let me close with two quotes of John of the cross:
“Desolation is a file, and the endurance of darkness is preparation for great light.”
“If someone wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.”
