Jesus’ order of things.
The secular and cultural way of measuring time is: day and night. This reflects itself in every aspect of human life: light followed by darkness; birth followed by death; joy followed by pain etc.
Jesus’ Resurrection changed this order of things. For Him, and for all those who believe in Him, it is night and day. And this is to reflect itself also in every aspect of human life: darkness giving way to a light that darkness will never overcome; death leading to new life and life eternal; the pain of the daily cross that yields the joy of fruit in abundance!
This is how it was in the beginning: “there was evening, and there was morning, the first day…. the second day….” and everyone of the seven days. This is how the world was intended to be for man.
This is how Jesus restored things even since His conception in the womb of His Mother, and since His birth in the Manger of Betlehem.
The leap of faith in the darkness of the unknown led Mary to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, who enlightens man. The rejection of the unhospitality of the tavern’s owners, who failed to recognise the gift that visited them, leading to the unhuman birth in the manger of animals, turned out to be the place of pilgrimage for the rejoicing simple shepherds and the awe-inspiring Wise men coming from estranged countries.
Jesus, who said:“I am the Light of the world”, was heralded by John the Baptist, who described himself as: “the voice crying in the wilderness”. And this was prophesied long before: the arid desert will turn out into fruitful land.
A few more days to celebrate Christmas, and we find ourselves in the midst of a dark, arid and cold desert. Maybe it is not yet mid-night. Maybe the worst of the desert is still to come. However, waiting for Christmas helps us to expect our desert to change into the promised land, the land flourishing with milk and honey.
Believing in Jesus, and not being “a reed swaying in the breeze”, casts out every doubt of illusion or utopian expectation, and fills you with conviction that the night, darkness, aridity, emptiness, and death will soon give place to the Joyful Day that never ends.
