Glimpsing Light in the Darkness

Night comes. Inexorably the days grow shorter, and night encroaches upon our enjoyable hours of warmth and sunshine. Night comes, and with it darkness. What must we do to stand in these dark times?

Our ancestors approached these times with fear that the sun was going away and sought many different ways to appease the celestial god with sacrifices and offerings. Today, we realize that the lengthening night is simply the result of how the earth tilts in its orbit around the sun. Yet even with that rationalistic explanation, the old myths still nag at the back of the mind. Night is coming, cold is coming—what will you do to appease the gods?

Ernst Barlach was a sculptor and writer who supported his native Germany in World War I—that is, until he got a taste of that darkness we call war. Between the wars, his sculptures were controversial because they powerfully portrayed the insanity that is war. He had visited the ultimate dark night of horror and unleashed against it a most powerful opponent—his creative spirit.

Barlach was commissioned to create a war memorial for the city of Magdeburg. It was to be a sculpture that would portray heroic German soldiers standing firm in their defense of the city. What the city fathers got instead was a grim representation of French, German, and Russian soldiers sharing the horror that is war.

Needless to say, the city fathers of Magdeburg were not pleased. Neither were the Nazis who, rising to power on intense nationalism, declared Barlach’s works "degenerate art."

In spite of the horror and desperation that Barlach experienced in war and its aftermath, he found in the night an ally.

He wrote that we need to “awaken the sleeping images of the future which can and must come forth from the night, in order to give the world a new and better face.” In the midst of evil times, Barlach discovered the illumination that darkness brings.

In one sense, the darkness we face cannot be overcome. As the earth tilts in its orbit, the lengthening nights will push darkness further into our days. We all know that these are already dark days filled with daily reports of war and savagery around the world. That darkness can and will consume us all if we do not make a stand. That stand begins with facing the darkness and being open to the illumination that it brings.

For me, the primary illumination is very simple. Shi’ite, Sunni, and Wahabist; Jew, Catholic, and Protestant; Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain; homosexual, heterosexual, transgender, and bi-sexual; red, yellow, black, white and all other colors in between; rich, poor, and middle-class — we are all human beings, stamped with the indelible Image of the Divine. This is the starting point of respect and enlightenment.

As we necessarily move towards night, let us not give in to fear. Rather let us awaken sleeping images of peace, images of respect, images of the love of God for all the Earth and all the people dwelling upon it. Awakening, let us live peace, live respect, live Love as we touch and awaken the creative spirit within us, giving the world, in Barlach's words, its “new and better face.”

Joel t