My son made an announcement at supper the other night.
“So, I told my class that Dad is super good with math and physics and all that, but when somebody asked him to spell ‘cookie,’ he said ‘c-o-o-c-k-y.'”
Daddy’s fork stopped in midair.
“You told your whole class that?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.
“Yep.”
Seeing the look of incredulity on Daddy’s face, my daughter piped up and warned her brother, “Uh-oh. It’s dark days for you.”
Perhaps it could have been “dark days” for my son, if he didn’t have a father who is full of humility and laughter and the ability to push forward in truth to the things that really matter.
But “dark days” do indeed seem to be upon us all, not only as darkness literally encroaches on our daylight, but also our culture and the Church as well.
Responding to ‘dark days’
A wise priest recently said we cannot control into which times we have been born, but we can control what we do with the time we are given.
It reminds me of characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring: “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
How do we respond to the “dark days,” literally and figuratively?
Outside as the days become shorter, we hunker down indoors and shield our loved ones from the bitter weather. And we are thankful for a house in which to shelter.
In the same way, even though the world at large seems to be succumbing to darkness all around us, we cannot lose hope. Although the dark troubles of our times may be new, mankind and the Church have withstood horrible atrocities throughout history.
And the Truth of Christ remains the same. It is the shelter in which we hunker down and teach our children, the future bearers of the faith.
In the dark days, I cannot help but ponder John 6: 67-69: “Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.'”
Sheltered by Christ’s truth alone, we can withstand any darkness, be it literal or figurative, be it in our personal lives, in our culture, or in the Church itself.
The truth of Christ
And what is the truth of Christ?
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Once you know the truth, you cannot turn away.
In these “dark days,” do not give up or give in to despair. For we have a Father who loves each of us, a Father who embodies forgiveness, hope, and truth the world cannot give.
Let us push through the darkness toward the light, as we focus on and share with our children the only truth that will bring us to our eternal home.
Julianne Nornberg, mother of four young children, is a member of St. John the Baptist Parish, Waunakee.