In a time like this

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Into the Darkest Hour

by Madeleine L’Engle

 

It was a time like this,

War & tumult of war,

a horror in the air.

Hungry yawned the abyss —

and yet there came the star

and the child most wonderfully there.

 

It was time like this

of fear & lust for power,

license & greed and blight —

and yet the Prince of bliss

came into the darkest hour

in quiet & silent light.

 

And in a time like this

how celebrate his birth

when all things fall apart?

Ah! Wonderful it is

with no room on the earth

the stable is our heart.

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In a time like this

Our hearts hurt

Our stomachs roil

And our legs tremble

 

I times like we one peers through the gathering gloom

Desperately looking for a way forward

Through the debris of war, the detritus of lies

 

The smog of hate and fear lingers

Fouling the air

And leaving us short of breath

 

We look for glimmers

For small moments that spark joy or peace

We gasp for breath and seek to rest

But then the light is overwhelmed again

And it seems darker than before

 

Sometimes it seems worse

This darkness

After flickers of light

When hope grows, and is almost grasped

And then slips away

Like a jewel dropped into rancid waters

 

This is the season of waiting

Of longing

When love merely flickers and tantalizes

And leaves us wanting

 

And yet

“Into this world, this demented inn

in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,

Christ comes uninvited.”

 

Love comes

Out of place, insistent

Looking for a place to be born

 

Banished from the halls of power

From the pulpits

Rejected as weak and inconvenient

 

Love searches

Amongst those who do not belong

Who are not valued

 

“those who are discredited,

who are denied status of persons,

who are tortured, bombed and exterminated” 1

 

And there love is born

And stays

For it is in the desperate hearts

The excluded hearts

The broken hearts

That there is room when there is no room

 

There love is born and grows

Light in the darkness

A glimmer

Of hope

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1.     Thomas Merton  “No Room at the Inn”