God is Light: 7th Day of Christmas

God Is Light, And In Him Is No Darkness (1 John 1:5) 

Today is the 7th Day of Christmas. We’re just past the mid-point of the Twelve Days (although not, strictly speaking, of the Christmas Season). I first started this tradition of blogging the 12 Days of Christmas eleven years ago.  At that time, I came across a pamphlet at our cathedral that offered suggestions on how to keep the Twelve Days. The writers of the pamphlet recommend the following for the 6th Day, but the 7th will do just as well. They suggest lighting all the candles on your Advent Wreath and praying the antiphon from December 21^st:

            O Radiant Dawn, splendor of Eternal Light,

           Sun of Justice;

         Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness

           And the shadow of death.

     Now, in our home we replace the pink and purple advent candles with red ones on Christmas Day. Or, if we can’t find red ones (as this year) white ones. In any case, the candles are already in place. As for the prayer, I would prefer not to use one of the O Antiphons, since they are so closely connected to Advent.  I understand why they make the suggestion, however.  At this point in the Christmas season it is appropriate to start “rippling out” and extending our joy at the coming of Jesus to contemplation of Who and What He is.  The identification of the Messiah with Light is deeply embedded in the Tradition, as in the well-known passage from Isaiah that also figures prominently in our observance of Advent:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. (Isaiah 9:2)

 Toward the Dawn 

We also see it in the opening of John’s Gospel, as a part of what is perhaps the key New Testament passage for understanding Jesus Christ:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

Light has also been a big part of our liturgical practices, as anyone who has attended the Easter Vigil can attest, and this also goes back to the beginning. From the earliest days of the Church, the priest has traditionally celebrated Mass ad orientem, “toward the rising (Sun).” Sadly, we no longer often see this in the Ordinary Form of the Mass. Please feel free to see my  post on this topic, “Darmok and Jalod Ad Orientem (Cardinal Sarah was Right), which has the added bonus of a Star Trek reference.  Not coincidentally, in the O Antiphon quoted above, the English words “O Radiant Dawn” are a translation of the Latin O Oriens.

Christ is Light

     You may notice our texts and tradition spend more time and effort telling us that Christ is Light than they do in explaining how and why. There are certainly connections that spring to mind immediately. Darkness is emptiness, sin, despair, death; light is abundance, purity, love, life.  But these only scratch the surface. We often come to a true understanding of something by working with it and by wrestling with it in our minds.  

I plan on observing this 7th Day of Christmas by praying over the passages of Scripture above (and others like them), by lighting up our Christmas candles, and by thinking about what it means that Christ is light.  What does that mean for me and for my family? How can I make that a reality for others?

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Featured image top of page: courtesy of Miriams-Fotos via Pixabay

Music for Christmas (God is Light): Silent Night

A spare and dignified (and hauntingly beautiful) version sung by the Bath Camerata in All Saints’ Church Woolley.

” Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.”