- Feb 5, 2002
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COMMENTARY: God’s light never ceases to shine and is far more abundant than the darkness of sin.
The solar eclipse of April 8 is drawing enormous attention, some of it theological and liturgical, given its coincidence with the Solemnity of the Annunciation and its proximity to the Easter Octave. But there is also a spiritual lesson to be drawn, one that reflects our experience of the shadow of sin in our lives.
The experience of sin, when properly apprehended, is one of darkness, even a sense of being lost, unable to see the light. Yet the reality is something quite different: God’s light never ceases to shine and is far more abundant than the darkness of sin. As St. Paul teaches, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20-21).
The eclipse is an analogy of that. The light is temporarily obscured, so that a great shadow falls across the Earth. For those in the heart of the shadow, it appears as if the light has been extinguished. Has it disappeared altogether? Yet at the same time, the light in shining brightly everywhere outside of the shadow’s path, in even greater abundance. The light remains greater.
It is somewhat different than our experience of day and night, sunrise and sunset. There, we expect the sunlight to fail, but know of its return at dawn. The evening is welcome, as respite from work, and the night a time to rest. We don’t expect the sun to shine at midnight, and so we are not fascinated — or disturbed — when it doesn’t. Yet still, we do associate the darkness with sin and death; we speak of wickedness being wrought “under the cover of night” and the “sleep of death.”
An insight into the experience of a spiritual eclipse was given recently by Pope Francis on Good Friday. He composed meditations for the Stations of the Cross and made an intriguing addition. He added a new station: “Jesus’ Cry of Abandonment.” (To make room, he eliminated the traditional Ninth Station, focused on the third fall of Jesus.)
The cry of dereliction is painful to hear:
Continued below.
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The solar eclipse of April 8 is drawing enormous attention, some of it theological and liturgical, given its coincidence with the Solemnity of the Annunciation and its proximity to the Easter Octave. But there is also a spiritual lesson to be drawn, one that reflects our experience of the shadow of sin in our lives.
The experience of sin, when properly apprehended, is one of darkness, even a sense of being lost, unable to see the light. Yet the reality is something quite different: God’s light never ceases to shine and is far more abundant than the darkness of sin. As St. Paul teaches, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20-21).
The eclipse is an analogy of that. The light is temporarily obscured, so that a great shadow falls across the Earth. For those in the heart of the shadow, it appears as if the light has been extinguished. Has it disappeared altogether? Yet at the same time, the light in shining brightly everywhere outside of the shadow’s path, in even greater abundance. The light remains greater.
It is somewhat different than our experience of day and night, sunrise and sunset. There, we expect the sunlight to fail, but know of its return at dawn. The evening is welcome, as respite from work, and the night a time to rest. We don’t expect the sun to shine at midnight, and so we are not fascinated — or disturbed — when it doesn’t. Yet still, we do associate the darkness with sin and death; we speak of wickedness being wrought “under the cover of night” and the “sleep of death.”
An insight into the experience of a spiritual eclipse was given recently by Pope Francis on Good Friday. He composed meditations for the Stations of the Cross and made an intriguing addition. He added a new station: “Jesus’ Cry of Abandonment.” (To make room, he eliminated the traditional Ninth Station, focused on the third fall of Jesus.)
The cry of dereliction is painful to hear:
Continued below.
Spiritual Eclipse and the Darkness of Sin
COMMENTARY: God’s light never ceases to shine and is far more abundant than the darkness of sin.
