Tomorrow, I Come
The light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not.
– John 1:5
The season of Advent is the season of reckoning with the darkness. It is a time to take stock of the darkness of the world, not shying away from what we might see. Peering into the darkness, we not only look into the darkness "out there," outside of ourselves. We also take stock of the darkness within, the internal dragons we face. But Advent does not stop here. It is not a time only to say "welp, it's a rather grim scene." Advent is a time spent longing for the Light to pierce into the darkness, pierce through it, and in fact pierce the darkness itself. In John's Gospel the human race is given the Good News that the Light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. That is, the darkness has not won the day, nor will it ever. (Thanks be to God.)
As we move through this Advent season, we will have an opportunity in the Longest Night & O Antiphons service to reckon with the darkness of the world and the Light of Christ that defeats that darkness. This service–it will be held on 20 Dec, instead of 21 Dec due to building availability–begins with ample time of quiet and individual prayer wherein we are invited to lament and grieve those things we need to lament and grieve. Often our culture does not afford us the time and space to do so. The second movement of this service follows that line from John's Gospel, the Light shining in the darkness. This is captured in the O Antiphons portion of the service. The O Antiphons are short prayers that are traditionally prayed at Evening Prayer in the days leading up to Christmas Eve. They are the basis for the hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Each stanza from that hymn is one of the antiphonal prayers. The creative beauty of the prayers is that, as the Church would pray them in the days leading up to Christmas Eve, the titles given to Christ create an acronym in reverse order. O Sapientia (Wisdom); O Adonai (Lord); O Radix Jesse (Root of Jesse); etc. The first letter of each of these titles spells out the Latin phrase Ero cras, meaning Tomorrow, I come. This is the hope of the world, the Light that shines in the darkness.
The darkness we face is real and there is no sense denying that. The Light who is Jesus, however, is far greater. May our hearts be warmed by His eternal goodness and love.