The light in the world

My dear Friends
Now that I have got over the excitement of my sixtieth birthday I can concentrate on the real plot, which is the Light coming into the world. In pagan times they lit bonfires and celebrated the light to alleviate the darkness.

In 160 B.C. in Palestine the Greeks, under the emperor Antiochus, overran the Jewish Temple and desecrated it. A small band of zealots, called the Maccabees, under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, fought against the Greeks and won and went to rededicate the Temple. They found that the light above the Ark, supposed to burn permanently, had been extinguished. They searched around for some oil and found only enough to burn for a short while. But God made a miracle and the oil lasted for eight days, long enough for them to get replenishments. Hence the Feast of Dedication, Chanukah, when the Jewish people light candles for eight days, to commemorate the power of God and the miracle of the light.

140 or so years later, Jesus was born. In John's Gospel we don't have the narrative of His birth, as in the Gospel of Luke, but we have an extended mystical description of the Light coming into the world. This is the Christ, the Logos, who was with the Father before time and space began. Not only was everything made through Him, but He came into the world so that He could be the Light and life of men and women. It is a Light that the darkness cannot extinguish or overpower, and, more, a Light that the darkness cannot (according to the original Greek) even comprehend.

I met a young German woman at university who was an atheist. We became friends and she told me that she had an African boyfriend. She once travelled with him to Africa. They arrived at night and she was struck by the darkness of the Veldt, the huge rural expanse of the African landscape. They were taken into a room, where there was nothing but a matress on the floor.

Then someone lit a candle. She told me that that was the closest to a religious experience she had ever had.

Every blessing for Christmas, may the Light shine on you.
Health and happiness in the new year.
Shalom from
Sister Gila