As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out.  And it was night.  John 13: 30

Quotations from “Night” by Elie Wiesel

(New York: Bantam Books, 1960)

Night.  No one prayed, so that the night would pass quickly.  The stars were only sparks of the fire, which devoured us.  Should that fire die out one day, there would be nothing left in the sky but dead stars, dead eyes.  P. 18

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.  Never shall I forget the smoke.  Never shall I forget the little faces of the children whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath the silent blue sky.

            Never shall I forget those flames, which consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence, which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live.  Never shall I forget those moments, which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.  Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.    P. 32

There is a darkness that is beyond any physical human experience.  There is a darkness that has the ability to damage and even kill the human soul.  This darkness is not simply a lack of light, it is rather the presence and action of pure evil.  On the night on which Jesus was betrayed he took bread and gave it to Judas and Satan came and took control of Judas.  This was a very different act than when he took bread and gave it to his other disciples.  For the others the bread was the body of Christ, the food of faith, part of a Sacred meal that has been celebrated for two millennia.  For Judas it was a curse, the seed of betrayal that already lurked in his heart germinated and sprung forth in the most infamous act of treachery ever recorded, Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, embodiment of love itself was betrayed by a kiss.  Judas went out and it was night.

It was night not only in terms of the time of day but it was night for creation, it was the time when the dark lord had risen up and was about to strike what he thought would be the death blow against his creator.  Satan had entered into the situation and Judas was an all too complicit instrument.  This type of night has been enacted over and over again throughout human history, in the death camps of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, in the ethnic cleansings of Africa and Eastern Europe, on the slave boats bound for the new world and on the plantations of the antebellum United States.  The darkness has spewed forth assassin's bullets and burning crosses, the darkness has swallowed the innocence of children, the darkness has raged and hurled all manner of assault against humanity.

But the darkness has been beaten.

On that very same night in which Satan took his boldest action, the arch-fiend also sealed his fate.  Sin and death staked a claim to a soul that was not theirs and thus erred in an unretractable fashion.  God shone light into the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.  From the blackest act of human betrayal has been kindled a flame that will shine on forever.

Jesus Christ has come into the world and now shines into every dark corner.  Jesus can light the way in the shadow of Auschwitz, Sobibor and Bergen-Belsen as well as in the private darkness of our personal sins.  There is no darkness so profound that the love of Christ cannot overcome it.  Christians are called to reflect and shine that light into the darkness of the world, to reach all who still wait in darkness.  It is our calling, it is our duty, it is our privilege: Shine the light of Christ.