Posted by The WORD in other words (2022) by Fr Melchor Bernal SVD – Christ the King Seminary, Quezon City
Friday 11th Week in Ordinary Time
“The Dark Sun,” a book written by Julia Kristeva, deals with depression, melancholia, and everything psychologically dark. The book was her reflections on her psychoanalytic practice in Paris.
Our sun darkened since the beginning of the year 2020. It’s hard to see through the fear. It’s hard to breathe a new life when the virus can be six feet away and can float in the air for more than 25 minutes. Year 2020 was very dark!
Virtual conferences, online seminars, chat rooms, internet publications on good Mental Health practice proliferated due to the pandemic. Almost everybody experienced S.A.D. (Stress, Anxiety, and Depression). Mental Health professionals were in demand. However, they can only help so much.
The darkness pointed out by Jesus is equally life-threatening if not more threatening than Covid 19. “If the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.” God’s love and our belief in him is the light that dissipates that darkness. That inner light that is permanently lit by God brightens our path.
Like Louis Braille, who turned his blindness into the Braille code for reading, allowing the physically blind to expand their world, if we are grounded in God’s love, our blinding fears can be transformed into a light that makes others see.
John of the Cross said that darkness of the senses, as well as the darkness of the soul, are preludes to experiencing the bright light of God’s presence.
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