“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it”. The darkness of which John speaks is not that of a temporal night; it is another kind of darkness, which evokes suffering, pain, evil, always clouding our days. We could say, taking up the more precise language that the evangelist uses, that it is the darkness of our flesh. Our flesh is not pure light, it is not total transparency, it is not the splendor of holiness. It is quite other: it is characterized by so many opacities and ambiguities, by so much evil suffered and done, by sin after sin, as well as by good episodes, by the desire for sincere love, by beautiful and holy aspirations. Our flesh is ambiguous, with many contradictions. The Son of God takes it as it is, not as it should be. He transforms it by taking it, he does not transform it before taking it. He immerses himself in the mud and purifies it, but only because of his immersion in it. Here is the good news that the messenger of peace must bring; here is the last and definitive word that the Father tells us through the Son: since Jesus came into the human condition there is no longer anything that is devoid of at least one particle of his light. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. The night is as bright as the day. For you darkness is like light, says Psalm 138 (139). Here is the poor, naked, tiring, but victorious, invincible faith of Christmas.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey