chiaroscuro

This week marks both the observance of Passover for Jewish people and the celebration of Holy Week with the culmination of Easter for Catholics, Orthodox  Christians and Protestant Christians.  The themes of light and darkness weave their way through both of these expressions of faith. Below is a beautiful photograph which a friend took in the middle of the woods. It shows how light can find its way in the middle of a dense forest and illumine the darkness. It is harder with mankind to see light in the darkness, but I believe it is possible to see hope when all is dark.

Many thinkers and writers have written about the relationship of darkness and light. Madeline L’Engle, a wonderful spiritual writer and also a children’s writer who has explored the world of good and evil  in her novels, said this: “Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.” And Gandhi well acquainted with the darkness said: “In the midst of darkness, light persists.” This week will be a week of remembering the darkness- slavery for the Jewish people, and the Passion for Christians. There will be meals shared without leavened bread. And candles snuffed out at the end of tenebrae.

The photograph to the left is from the NY Times and I can not get it out of my mind. It shows a man pushing a wheelbarrow with a coffin in it. He lives in Syria and is trying to respect the life which once was while in the midst of war and annihilation.  The shadow of the human figure tells the story– a story of “carrying on” in the midst of fear and war. Where can we see the light in this war and when will it break forth? We are taught in scripture that there is darkness, but “light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” And in Psalm 112: 4 the Hebrew teaching says: “Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious merciful, and righteous.”

As we participate in this week may we remember all people whose lives are surrounded by darkness– that light may shine upon them. May we also reflect on our lives, that the “light” within us will shine and the darkness will not comprehend it. Or from the original Greek that the darkness not “acquire,” or “lay hold of” our light.