There is evil in the world.
One only needs to look around to realize this.
War is evil. Violence is evil.
Widespread poverty is evil. Oppression is evil.
Evil is real and there are many would minimize it.
They would re-cast evil into virtues,
calling greed ambition,
or seeing pride as having a strong self-image,
or being slothful and calling it a life of leisure,
or making selfishness the prime reason for saving up,
or living a materialistic and hedonistic life
and calling it enjoying the fruits of one’s labors.
I too am infected by this evil
and, like the world, am very much in need of salvation.
Imagine the beginning.
There was nothing but darkness and chaos.
And God’s light and goodness burst forth
to dispel the darkness and the chaos.
Imagine that first Christmas morn.
The songs of the angels burst forth through the stillness
to announce the birth of a child in the night
who will bring us goodness and light.
In my gloom and darkness, in the stillness of the morning
I pray that God bursts forth into my sinfulness and incapacities
to bring me fulfillment and the fulness of life,
“For the darkness is passing away,
and the true light is already shining.
Whoever says he is in the light,
yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness.
Whoever loves his brother remains in the light,
and there is nothing in him to cause a fall.”