In the struggle for a better world, we cannot help but engage in confrontation. This is a confrontation with the dominant powers that shun the light and keep the light from shining. In the process, all those who stand for the light are shunned, repressed, and experience untold suffering and even death. Yet in the process, all of us who believe in the light cannot also help but celebrate…why? Because even as the Creator of the universe defined the nothingness of darkness when all peoples are confounded with the accuracy and inevitability of the sunrise. These are but rehearsals of people’s sacrament and stories of the struggle for life–for human rights, for animal rights, for earth rights….of seed surfacing from inhospitable rocks, of a child birthing against the deepest womb, of the Son of Man rising from the dead. Yes, we celebrate! Because the darkest night is our very assurance that dawn is sure to come!
