Eskom’s Seasonal Gift

Sensitive readers look away now! I have some shocking news: Jesus was not born on the 25th of December. I realise that this might come as a bit of a surprise to some (and I won’t even touch on the question of the veracity of Santa Claus). But we have to admit that it is pretty unlikely that December 25 was Jesus’ actual birthday. In fact, the chance is precisely 1 in 365.

We do know that he was born and where he was born; we just don’t know when. But since we have to celebrate his birthday on some given date, December 25 is what we have.

But there is, of course, a reason for that date. It is the darkest part of the year, in fact the shortest day in the northern hemisphere is on December 21. And so the Church decided that this would be an appropriate time to celebrate the arrival on earth of the “Light of the Nations”.

In so doing, the Church also encouraged people to switch smoothly from the mid-winter celebrations they already had — so the Druidic feast of the Winter Solstice (and its “Yule” traditions) and the Roman festival of the Sun God (as opposed to the Son of God) became subsumed into a conveniently placed mid-winter celebration of Christmas.

All well and good—but that is the other side of the Equator. If you are reading this lying on the beach in Durban or baking beside a flaming braai at the Vaal or sweating in a stuffy church in Springbok, the idea of shortest days or darkness must seem rather remote. For here in the southern hemisphere, this is mid-summer not mid-winter, the lightest time of the year not the darkest.

When the “Light of the Nations” is born here in December the light does not stand out against the black night as Christmas lights do on London’s Oxford Street.

And yet, here we are also “the people who walk in darkness”. Unless there has been a miracle since I wrote this, South Africa has for a few weeks now been experiencing unprecedented levels of power cuts. Eskom’s seasonal gift to us is a package of euphemistically named “load shedding” that has disrupted our cooking, entertaining and shopping plans. Can we find a gift in this?

There is a great Catholic joke told on this subject. Four priests, a lay woman and a Vatican official were sitting around having a meeting when suddenly the lights went out.

The Franciscan spoke first: “The Lord has given us an opportunity here to reflect on the plight of the poor and the darkness of their lives.”

The Dominican disagreed: “No, here we are reminded of the injustice of climate change and the need to get out and campaign for a fairer world.”

The Jesuit had a different contribution: “This unexpected technological fault shows how important it is for me to persuade my superior to send me away for several years to study electrical engineering so that I can master this subject.”

The diocesan priest on the other hand immediately started planning a fundraising drive to rewire the whole of the church.

And the lay woman got up and changed the light-bulb.

And the Vatican official? Well, the Vatican official didn’t even notice the lights had gone out!

My point is that though we individually can do nothing about the load-shedding, the sudden loss of power might give us reason to pause in our day and notice something else. We might notice (like the Franciscan) that while we take power for granted, so many other people do not have that luxury.

We might notice (like the Dominican) that electricity today is part of a much bigger question to do with the planet and the fair use of resources and that we ignore that at our peril.

We might notice (like the Jesuit) how little we actually understand about how these things work and why there are power cuts, and seek to be better informed.

We might notice (like the diocesan priest) that as households and as a country we have to build for the future and we cannot simply take advantage of the investments of the past.

Or we might notice (like the lay woman) that sometimes we can take simple actions to make a difficult situation easier.

Or (like the Vatican official) we might not notice anything at all!

May the Son of God, who is greater than the Sun, be for you, your family and your community a source of great light in the face of whatever darkness you encounter in 2015 — whether caused by the seasons or by sadness or by the utility company.