Walking in Darkness?
Michiel Peeters - To introduce us to Christmas, the liturgy of the Midnight Mass begins with a few lines from the 9th chapter of the prophet Isaiah. (A prophet has received the gift of expressing the world’s meaning and life’s value.)
Isaiah announced about 700 years before Christ: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone. You have brought them … great rejoicing…; for the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, the rod of their taskmaster, you have smashed…. For a child is born to us, a son is given us….. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.”
The principal yoke that presses on us may be the reigning lies that complicate our lives (1 John 5:19): the lie of positivism, as widespread philosophical prejudice and practical advice; the lie that our main value is in what we do, what we manage to achieve; the lie that we can fill our emptiness inside with our own actions and ideas; the lie that we are self-made, that we are God; the great lie that our infinite desire is not a resource, a help, but an enemy to deny, anesthetize, suppress, reduce, or substitute (Simone Weil said that “every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness”).
We try to alleviate the pain of the yoke that burdens us, the “rod of our taskmaster,” by seeking counsel wherever possible. However, the counselors we find are not disinterested and not truly familiar with life. We seek heroes we can admire, but the statues we erect for them must soon be taken down again. We look for a father, but the ones we find, disappear. We can try to play the game, submit to the “prince of this world” and his crumbs of power, and then what?
Amid this, the announcement: “The grace of God has appeared.” “A child is born to us, a son is given to us.” “Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.” “They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.”
A Wonder-Counselor, someone who finally knows what life is and has come to share his experience with us freely; someone to look to, but not one of our “stars” with an expiration date, but a God-Hero we can look up to with lasting reason, to be lifted ourselves; a Father-Forever, who can introduce us into an experience of fatherhood and sonship that does not vanish in time; a Prince, but not of war, not of power, but of Peace: the fruit of his reign, of his being followed, is peace.
This is the announcement made to us today. We are invited to verify its truth if we find it important enough; if we feel the yoke, the burden, and our need for a counselor, a “hero,” a father, a “prince”… Isaiah’s prophecy begins with the phrase: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone”: it is precisely those who walk in darkness, who dwell in a land of gloom that can see the light, even if it begins as a small dot, a tiny star. That is why the shepherds were able to recognize it. This means that all circumstances of our lives are helpful for our path.
A great light is announced to us, born as a little baby. In the measure that we walk in darkness and are looking for light, burdened and looking for relief, we can recognize it, go after it, verify it, and be saved by it, as did the shepherds.
0241224 Christmas Midnight Mass (Is 9:1–6)
(Homily by Fr Michiel Peeters, Tilburg University Chaplaincy)
