The Book of Common Prayer 1662
Lighten our darkness we beseech thee, O Lord; and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;
For the love of your only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
Reflection
The shortest and darkest day of the year is approaching as I write this. Opening the morning curtains at 8 o’ clock and seeing nothing but black outside is as surprising as having to close them after 3.45 in the afternoon. Remember when we were children and we were called in from play: “Come inside it’s getting dark!” and we’d spill into the artificial light within our homes. My night light was a thatched cottage lit from within, burning a reassuring glow in the gloom.
Lying in bed, banishing the fear of the monsters which surely lurked under it I would mutter prayers recalled from evening school assemblies:
Lighten our darkness we beseech thee, O Lord; and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;
My great comfort even then, however was in the last line:
For the love of your only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
This Compline prayer, recited within the gorgeous liturgy of the final Office of the day, surely reaches deeply into our (human) being – the heart felt plea felt by Christians of and in any age, because we are taught to fear the dark.
However, Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you, writes the poet in Psalm 139, and such wonder comes after the promise that even though darkness covers us we are where God is, yes in the dark.
What an awful lot we miss in seeing and understanding when full sunlight conquers the sky! Numberless stars, the shining moon, the silhouetted creation, a stronger sense of smell perhaps and fireflies depending where you are. In the countryside where I live the sun dips below the horizon and we are in complete blackness save for moonlight. Sometimes I wander outside then, and am amazed at how little I can see until my eyes adjust, but I know where I am even though the darkness covers me. The animals too come out, the shining eyes of deer out of the trees, the scurrying of hedgehog and occasionally the possibility of badger. What a wealth of life, as well as hidden excitement there is in the darkness.
Our prayer to deliver us from darkness or to lighten our darkness is perhaps less about the thing to be feared, and more to do with engaging in it with Christ, be it the literal lack of light or a difficult time. Our persuasion that darkness is only associated with fell things misses the gift it can bring to strengthen and encourage us.
Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you, writes the poet – and what wonder is in these words. There really is nowhere we can go or be, in light, dark or even in shadow where Christ is not.
For the love of your only Son our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Yes, the last and critical line which brought to my childhood mind the picture of Jesus healing Jairus’ daughter in my child’s First Bible. His outstretched hand and the look of exchanged love each felt for the other did battle with those monsters, still does.
How the fell things of fear, depression, loss, criminality and danger are easily associated with darkness, but this night time Office draws us into the promise of Christ’s being with us especially in its darkest hour.