God Sister Teresa
THERE WAS very heavy smog in and around London at the beginning of December 1952. It wrecked my sixth birthday party in that nobody could get to it: my mother, my nanny and I sat in a cold and misty dining room at a table which looked so pretty with an iced cake and candles and other treats, all pointless because there wasn’t anyone else there to share the fun. On the same evening a performance of La Traviata at Sadler’s Wells was stopped after the first act because it was impossible for the audience to see the stage and, much more seriously, an estimated 700 people died from respiratory and heart ailments as the direct result of the same smog. It is horrible stuff – man-made and very sinister – and although it doesn’t extinguish light it makes light inaccessible and futile.
The first Sunday of Advent 2015 will be celebrated on 29th November and the Prologue to St John’s Gospel is the set reading at Mass. In these dark days of the beginning of a new liturgical year St John announces light, and reminds us of the grandeur of God, of his everlasting nature, and of the advent, or coming, of the saviour of the world: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.’ Genesis I:3 tells us that the first words spoken by God at the beginning of time were ‘And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.’ And there has been light ever since.
I love the King James Bible as quoted above, but sometimes different translations (and translations in languages other than English) can be a help towards getting to know scripture better and thereby to appreciate it more. Instead of ‘the darkness comprehended it not’ other versions include ‘did not overcome it’, ‘never mastered it’ and, rather lamely, ‘never put it out’. None of these are incorrect, and scholars say that John intentionally used an ambiguous word in order to express a concept that was far too complex to be left to mere precision.
There can be metaphorical smog in our hearts – ignorance, lack of love and prejudice to name but a few – and the potential list is endless. These are all killers, and need the light to chase them away. The dispelling of ignorance (and I specifically mean our ignorance of the contents of the Christian faith) is easy to tackle. All that is needed is a good and readable book. One of the glories of British publishing in the mid-20th century was the whole Pelican series: four New Testament Commentaries came out and the best of the lot is Saint John by John Marsh, last reprinted in 1976. It is available second hand at competitive prices on the internet and I have had it by my side for the past 32 years, always grateful for its wisdom.
In these dark days of the beginning of a new liturgical year St John announces light