Let There Be Dark

The nights are drawing in. That's what a cheery friend always tells me on June 22nd. But they really are, now. And this week, we stand on the threshold of deeper darkness still. The summer is but a distant fantasy, as the Earth tilts us, like a ride, away from sunflowers, strawberries and sun-filled evenings...

 

The Bible affirms our need for the light, of course. 'In him was life, and that life was the light of all people,' writes John. 'The light shines in the darkness...'

 

We grow towards light. And as we make our pilgrim's progress - as we are 'transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory', as Paul writes - it's as if we are a flower bursting out of the darkness and unfurling into the sunshine of God's kingdom.

 

And yet... the flower was once a seed, and the seed had to fall to the ground and die, to bring life. And without the darkness, this could not happen.

 

It's seasonal, of course. Every year, Creation embraces the darkness, as part of its cycle of birth and death and resurrection; as part of its continual unfurling. We are Creation, too - standing within, not above it - and as such, we can learn to welcome it, as part of our own cycle; as part of our own, greater unfurling.

 

The theologian Matthew Fox writes of four inter-connected paths on our journey of life and faith: the 'positiva', 'negativa', 'creativa', and 'transformativa'. These correspond (respectively) with the process of celebrating life, letting go, releasing our creativity, and fighting for justice.

 

The letting go part - the via negativa - is a journey, he suggests, into 'the darkness, the wounds, the pain and silence and solitude of existence...' And we have much to learn, there: about 'letting go and letting be, emptying and being emptied... learning to breathe, to sit, to be still, to dwell in silence, to taste nothingness without flinching'.

 

We do not 'die' once, but many times, in our life. But we experience resurrection many times, too. 'We forgive, we are forgiven, we bottom out, we move on, we give birth anew... Thus, life and death are more synergetic than we usually imagine them to be.'

 

Perhaps this is why a song as dark as Psalm 88 could find its way into our light-filled Bibles. And why its writer can find himself singing, 'The darkness is my closest friend'.

 

Brian Draper

 

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Brian Draper runs retreats, workshops and guided reflections through a cottage industry called Echosounder.

Matthew Fox's reflections on the via negativa come from an intriguing article, 'The Hidden Spirituality of Men', for Ode magazineand from a blog entry entitled 'Some thoughts on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and beyond'.

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