Thought for the Week, January 4, 2026

The story of Christmas, the story of the coming of God as man in the birth of the infant Jesus in Bethlehem, is woven around the theme of light shining in darkness.  The birth of Jesus Christ is the appearance of light in darkness. 

The attentive reader of the story would notice that, right from the First Reading of the Mass During the Night, the theme of light in darkness comes up repeatedly.

        “The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone,” said the prophet Isaiah in the First Reading of the Mass During the Night.

        Darkness is acknowledged.  But light is also affirmed.  Those words were addressed to a people living in the darkness of their own infidelity.  Their infidelity exposed them to insecurity.  God had made a covenant to their ancestor to be their protector.  But, threatened by the geopolitics of the time, they forgot God and looked to other nations for protection.  Those nations were not going to protect them without a price.  They would pay a price by turning away from God their protector.  They would trade their allegiance to God for allegiance to kings of other nations.  Fidelity was put to test by realpolitik.  Light was offered.  They preferred darkness.

        But the birth of a child who is named Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father and Prince -of-Peace would establish an era in which the heavy yoke, the rod of oppression, would be broken, and all the footgear of battle, and every cloak rolled in blood would be burnt and consumed by fire.

        Then, in the Gospel according to Luke, read at the same Mass During the Night, the theme of light comes up again.  At the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, the angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds watching their flocks in the dark of night, “and the glory of the Lord shone round them.”

        Taken by fright at the appearance of the light, the angel assured them there was nothing to fear.  For the light of God shines in the darkness of our life, not to frighten us, but to brighten us up.  The words of the angel explained the appearance of the light.  “Do not be afraid,” he said to them.  “Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people.  Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you.”

        The theme of light is found in the Prologue of the Gospel according to John, read at the Mass During the Day.  That Gospel passage would speak of Jesus as the Word of God made flesh.  “All that came to be had life in him and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower.  The Word was the true light that enlightens all men; and he was coming into the world.”

        But this light was and is still rejected.  We to whom he came preferred and still prefer darkness.  And so, continued the Gospel according to John, “He was in the world that had its being through him, and the world did not know him.  He came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him. But to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.”

        When we open our hearts to embrace the light that Jesus Christ is, we receive power that no darkness can overpower.  For the power given to the children of God overpowers darkness, even if we do not know that it does.

        Then, in the Preface of the Nativity, the priest says: “in the mystery of the Word made flesh a new light of your glory has shone upon the eyes of our mind, so that, as we recognize in him God made visible, we may be caught up through him in love of things invisible.”

        The light that Jesus the Son of God enables us to see is the light that God is.  The invisible God is made visible in the mystery of the incarnation.  God makes himself visible by becoming one of us.  Even in darkness we are not alone.  We are surrounded, enveloped and sustained by the light of Christ.

        On the Solemnity of the Epiphany, in the Collect, the priest prays: “May the splendour of your majesty, O Lord, we pray, shed its light upon our hearts, that we may pass through the shadows of this world and reach the brightness of our eternal home.”  The light of Christ leads us through the darkness of this life to the inextinguishable light of life that has no end in the eternal home of the Father.

        Still, on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, in the First Reading from the Book of Isaiah, the proclamation was made to the people of God: “Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.”  The words are quite evocative.  Though night and darkness still cover the earth, the light shines.

In the Gospel according to Luke, read at the Mass During the Night, the light of the infant born in the manger in Bethlehem appeared to shepherds, representing the Jewish people.  In the Gospel according to Matthew, the Gospel read on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the light would appear again, to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah in the First Reading, this time to foreigners, to the Magi from the East, representing all the nations of the world.  “We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage,” said the Magi. 

And when Herod the wicked king tried to mislead them, as many rulers often do, the light guided them to the place where Jesus was born.  “There in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward, and halted over the place where the child was.  The sight of the star filled them with delight.”  Unlike the shepherd in the Gospel according to Luke, who were terrified by the light, the Magi, wise men that they were, saw the star, and were filled not with fright but with delight to have seen the light.

        At Christmas, Christians celebrate the birth of the one spoken of in the Creed as “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.”  Light was born in Bethlehem.  Yet, the world remains in darkness because, just as there was no place for the infant Jesus in the Inn, today still, there is no room for Jesus in the heart of human beings.  When there is no room for him in our hearts, there is no room for light in our hearts.  When there is no light in our hearts, our hearts will remain in the darkness of sin, the darkness of error, the darkness of hatred and violence. 

The light that Jesus is, shines in the dark.  There is still darkness in our world, and there are times one is tempted to fall into the temptation of thinking darkness triumphs in the end.  Forces of darkness have made Nigeria into a land of seemingly endless insecurity, a land of hunger in the abundance of food, thirst in the abundance of water.  Many world leaders, practicing textbook Machiavellianism, while pretending to be princes of peace, would only impose peace of their own making on their own terms, peace of geopolitical interests promoted by propaganda. 

The simple but profound message of Christmas is this: in the midst of darkness shines light, and darkness cannot overpower light.     In the midst of violence, the Prince of Peace is born.  In the midst of injustice in interpersonal, inter-communal and international relations, the justice of God comes down in the form of a powerless infant who is light shining in darkness. 

Our world is still largely enveloped in darkness.  Nigeria is enveloped in darkness, and dark clouds of electoral malpractice are already gathering in the penultimate year before an election year.  We are incarcerated in the dark prison of delusion, the delusion of mistaking brigandage for politics. 

But, just as a little child confounded Herod in the story of the Epiphany, leaders of Nigeria, and indeed leaders of nations of our world, of powerful nations, or of nations presumed to be powerful, are, like Herod, ridiculed by a little child.  The power of this child exposes the weakness of powerful rulers of our world.  The light of this tiny little child, shinning in the darkness of intrigues improperly called politics in Nigeria, attracts all persons and all nations, inviting them to quit the deeds of darkness. 

Will this invitation be accepted?  Will the political elite of Nigeria see the light and stop fiddling while Nigeria is burning?

 

Father Anthony Akinwale, OP