Matthew 11,11
A greater than John the Baptist has never been seen

Today is the feast of St Lucy. Lucy is an early martyr, who in life wore a crown of candles on her head to light her way as she brought food to Christians in the catacombs. Her feast used to coincide with the winter solstice and so for these reasons today is sometimes associated with the beginning of Christmastide, pointing to the coming of Christ, the true light, and is marked as a festival of light, especially in Scandinavian countries, with their long, dark winters.

It was actually in a Scandinavian country, Sweden to be precise, where I had a rare experience of total darkness. I was visiting a copper mine in Falun. The guide led us down the initially well-lit mine, and then demonstrated what it would have been like for miners in the past if their oil lamps went out. He turned off all the lights. We were left for a moment in total darkness. Normally, speaking as a city-dweller at least, our darkest moments are still lit up by some source of artificial lighting. We even complain about light pollution. So it’s unusual not to be able to see anything at all. It made me appreciate even more the symbolism of light and dark when it comes to our spiritual life. 

We all needed to be guided spiritually, and led to the true light of Christ. No wonder the Church chooses a reading about John the Baptist on St Lucy’s feast day. He pointed to the true light of Christ. We could say that he too was a guiding light then; not a distracting light, which Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI compared to the artificial lights of a city, that can blind us to the true light. 

Let the light of Christ shine through you today and radiate out onto the people you meet.

A reflection written by Gianni Notarianni O.S.A., St Augustine's Hammersmith, London, England

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