Dear Reader,
Every year, for the past few years, my wife and I celebrate Advent’s arrival with the lighting of candles and the reading of Holy Scripture. We start in the dark with only the dim glow of Christmas lights to keep us company. We sit there in silence, waiting, watching, feeling the dark closing in around us, and then, when it almost becomes to much to bear we light a solitary candle and watch the flame curl into existence like a flower opening up to the morning sun.
Despite the darkness, the candle stands resolute. It does not bow or yield, it refuses to give any ground. It flickers there like a living protest, a single flame standing tall against an all-powerful oppressive regime.
The image is a powerful one and in many ways, the lighting of a candle is the perennial Advent symbol. Like that single flame, we too exist surrounded by darkness pressing in on every side, waiting for that great day when our light is joined by that of the morning sun when God himself fills the earth with the fullness of his glory. But until that day the scriptures call us to watch and wait, standing resolute until the coming of our Lord.
But our waiting isn’t a simple act of the will. We are held aloft by the virtues of Hope, Faith, Joy, and Love. These virtues exist outside ourselves, they are gifts given to those wrapped in darkness, the necessary spark that sets our weary souls aflame. Like the protesting candle, Hope denies the dark grip of fear, faith in turn resists the oppressive force of doubt, while joy wages war against the shadow of despair. All of these are undergirded by love, not our love, but the love extended toward us through the one who waits in the darkness with us. Here, in his love, we find the strength to resist the urge to give into the darkness, refusing to cower before that which seems insurmountable.
As we journey through the dark of winter let us remember that our weary world has cause for rejoicing, for those “who walk in darkness will see a great light; and upon those who dwell in the shadow of death, a great light has shined.”
Recent Publications:
Read my new poem, A New York City Coffee Shop, in Boats Against The Current’s latest print issue.
Reading Recommendations:
- Derek Walcott, Selected Poems
- Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk