Reflection

No Matter How Tiny

Living in a time of darkness weighs on the soul.

Even if I identify myself with those who sponsor light, some days it feels as if the light will be snuffed out completely.

Like so many of my generation, who inhabit the same corner of the political spectrum as I do, I used to assume that, no matter how extreme the forces of darkness may become, there are balancing forces.

I have seen periods in the past in which one political party or the other momentarily held the White House, a majority in Congress. But, how naive this seems now, there was the Supreme Court that would prevent an attempt to circumvent the Constitution.

That began to erode with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which we considered settled. Precedent.

Yet, even then, I couldn’t have imagined what we’re seeing now.

An unhinged president, a complacent Congress, and a Court overloaded with Justices who owe their appointment to the unhinged president.

Now take another look at the photo at the beginning of this piece.

As the light began to descend, disappear, a tiny piece of it found a place in the looming darkness.

When I took the photo I hadn’t seen that tiny remnant. Looking at it later, it struck me that we so often overlook the fragile fragment that remains when the darkness looks overwhelming, permanent.

Viktor Orban, Hungarian president, who modeled the agenda our autocrats hoped to adopt, didn’t merely lose the election he did everything in his power to rig in his favor, he was brought down in a landslide in which over 70% of the voters turned out. Our nation hasn’t see a turnout like that in my lifetime. Neither had Hungary.

Has an American president or vice-president ever before overtly campaign for a candidate in another country’s election?

But then, has an American president ever before portrayed an image of himself in the role of Jesus?

We may need a third look at that photo to have its metaphorical significance imprint on our battered psyche.

In the prologue to John’s gospel, there is a line that says, “The light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Dear friends (if you have read this far,I dare to call you that), it may take all the courage and energy we can muster, but we are heirs and custodians of that fragile light. We see that it cannot be extinguished, and we must now bear witness to the love it illuminates.

Love that joins all of us, even those who fear and oppose the light, into a single body.