Facing the Darkness on Epiphany: Riots and the Light of Christ

Aanbidding van de Koningen - Drieluik O.L.V. ter Potterie, Brugge, PD

While liturgically, for Roman Catholics, Epiphany has already happened, today, January 6th, is the date of Epiphany. Today, for Western Christians, usually commemorates the wise men, the magi, the astrologers coming to worship the child Jesus. This is a beautiful moment which is cut short by Herod’s slaughter of the innocents. As 2021 begins, we find much of our own hope cut short by protesters attacking the capital. I am cut to the deep. I have had many emotional responses to today’s events. Because of that, I have decided to record today’s events in a poetry journal I have been keeping since the start of the year. I want to share today’s entry with you. May it bring some solace and express the pain I know you must be feeling.

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The celestial light that led the star-bound
To the House of Overflowing Fulness
Seems darker now despite its wholeness
And in that Dark, I begin to drown.

Anger, hatred, Saturn’s rays
Colored by the martial-red light
Overwhelm my weekend sight.
I stumble onto darkened ways.

Wretchedness and death and darkness
Seem to fill my every thought.
The World we live in has at last been bought
By the Lord of the Air, the Prince of Darkness.

Herod’s ire is vented freely,
Rachel is weeping for her children
As every inch, every corner is filled in
With tears from eyes now hard and steely.

But through the fog the Old Light shines,
And the old Appearance is made new;
Epiphanic light like dew
Collecting on the grass and on the vines

Flickers the flame that burns in the Child
Playing on his Holy Mother’s knee.
He embodies the Light we long to see
As the world around us becomes mad and wild.

The darkness has certainly left its scars,
Death, destruction, and decay.
But Night must always fall to Day,
And even Night is filled with stars.