The gloom dispelling Light

Scatter My Darkness: Turning Night to Day with the Gospel
Fr. John Henry Hanson O.Praem
Scepter
2021
160 pages
ISBN 978-1594174247

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Fr Hanson starts the first chapter with a quote from St John Paul II: “In the liturgical experience, Christ the Lord is the light which illumines the way and reveals the transparency of the cosmos.” The author sets out to explore the many ways in which Christ gives us light to scatter the darkness in our lives, to part the curtains on our lives to reveal the presence of God in ways and places that we may never have seen before.

In the first chapter, he poses the question, why bother to budge out of the darkness? People today seek guidance from various sources but the author reminds us that although they may be helpful, if they fail to identify Christ as the true Light that enlightens everyone, they fail on the most important point. He goes on to say, quoting St Paul: “For it is God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).

The next chapter brings us through the first steps in approaching the light, with a journey back to the reading from Isaiah which is always a part of the Christmas liturgy describing how the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. We have to look for the light of Christ rather than the ephemeral “lights” presented to us by the world. The author puts it very well as follows:

“People spend so much time and money imitating celebrities, fashion models, actors, athletes, – almost any high profile individual who makes waves. Yet we don’t become any more authentic by copying someone else’s looks, attitude, style, and so forth. Rather, true personality gets occluded. With Christ it is entirely different. All that is best and truest about a person is in him, and he communicates that to us by his grace, giving us a share in his divinity at the same time.”

Throughout the book, Fr John Henry combines quotes from scripture and some of the great spiritual writers from St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas to St John Paul and St Josemaría Escrivá. Not surprisingly, there are lengthy quotations from St John of the Cross who underwent his own dark night of the soul, but at all times the narrative is easy to read and encourages us to keep on and overcome the darkness that prevents us from seeing our way to God and sheltering in his embrace. A book well worth buying, reading and praying with!