False Light brings Darkness
BY DEACON GREG GARNIE
At the Easter Vigil we chant three times the words “Lumen Christi”— Christ Our Light — in the midst of darkness as the light of the Easter candle illuminates the darkness. This light is a symbol of the True Light, Jesus Christ, who illuminates all darkness.
(Graphic: The Southern Cross)
Darkness has been described as simply being the absence of light. Light and darkness are central to our personal, community and society spirituality. Since we are not only physical but also spiritual beings, light and darkness play a central role in our spiritual and holistic human formation, or the lack of it.
Through observation, I have come to believe that the Light of Christ we proclaim at Easter is being challenged more and more to the point that darkness is even portrayed as “light”. For Christians there can be only ONE Light, Jesus Christ. For the world there is only ONE Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Yet we find ourselves in a situation where Christians and the world are being told, not by God, that things of darkness are indeed acceptable, and conversely that things of light are now unacceptable or “politically incorrect”. Ergo, evil is good and good is evil. This is the message being propagated at all levels of society by a variety of individuals, groups, institutions, organisations and governments.
We only have to look to the laws in our country to realise this truth. Abortion legalised, same sex unions legislated as ‘marriage’, legalised polygamy, changing the natural family structure by allowing same sex couples to raise children and so on. The state determines what is acceptable and what is not. In this context, both natural and divine law are discarded for secular law.
Even in the area of family planning, Natural Family Planning is excluded from state-run family planning programmes, effectively forcing artificial contraception down our proverbial throats.
Where secularism, driven by the state and others with the same agenda, is actively stripping away the True Light and replacing it with a false light, there is darkness.
Even within our Catholic Church we have those who have spread darkness instead of Light by their words, actions and omissions, clergy and laity alike. The sexual abuse scourge is a case in point.
We are in the midst of a spiritual war that has been raging since the dawn of creation, between light and darkness. We Christians are often very naive about this warfare and fall into the secular trap of accepting darkness as “light” while at the same time consigning the True Light to the rubbish bin of irrelevance or uselessness.
The True Light is often seen as an inconvenience or a hindrance to the more alluring life that darkness offers with its insatiable thirst of and for money, power, instant gratification, status, irresponsible pleasures of the senses, sense of entitlement, oppression and suppression of others, covetous avarice and all sorts of corruption and injustice, from the very top to the very bottom of socio-political, religious and economic life.
Therefore my challenge to all Christians, including myself and not only Catholics, is to consciously and actively embrace the True Light, Jesus Christ and ALL that he stands for.
Christianity is by nature radical and revolutionary and we, like Christ, are not called to be politically correct for the sake of empowering the darkness of this world and at the expense of Christ’s Light within us that forms our faith convictions. No! We are called to be like Mother Mary who stood bravely for the True Light despite the consequences.
We are called to be like those who have given their lives rather than to deny the True Light. By word and action we stand for divine truth, in season and out of season, even when the truth is painful. Christ’s mission remains radical and revolutionary, this has not changed.
The light of Christ is an invitation to every human being to be freed from the darkness, the evil that stalks the earth like a hungry beast disguised to deceive and lead astray.
Lumen Christi! Deo Gratias!
Deacon Greg Garnie is based in Johannesburg.
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