O Oriens

Today's "'O' Antiphon" can be rendered, "O Dayspring, Brightness of the Light Eternal, and Sun of Righteousness: Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death."

I kinda like to render the Latin "Oriens" as "Eastern Dawn." You recognize it as the word from which we get "Oriental" as well as "oriented." Someone who is oriented literally knows which way to face, and the way to face is East. East, to drink in the rising sun; east, to greet the new light. East, to greet the One who is the true Dawn and the true Light.

No one who lives in the Northwest despises light. We'll take all we can get, thank you! But I have come to appreciate the region's gloom--helps remind me of my own need for that true Light and to long for it. And the Light comes as a gift.

Today also the feast of a favorite Saint--Thomas, who got a bad rap as "doubting Thomas", some sort of object lesson in thinking the right things. Thomas teaches us of the hunger and longing of authentic faith--he wishes to touch, he wishes to meet. An early Church Father said, "The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples." May Thomas' asking of the hard questions and longing for an authentic encounter with the Word made flesh be our own longing.

And may that Word light your way, on the longest night of the year, in whatever long night in which we find ourselves awaiting the dawn.