Christians are now well into the season of Advent, the time of preparation for Christmas, the feast of the Nativity of Jesus Christ. This was the hour when the "light of men" entered human history. This is the light that, according to St John, "shines in darkness and darkness could not overpower it".
The words of the Evangelist from the prologue to the fourth Gospel may offer consolation to those disheartened by a clear sense of encroaching darkness and of new and destructive ideologies emerging as Christianity diminishes rapidly.
