Advent and Christmas draw us into the darkness: Advent to prepare us and Christmas to pierce the darkness with love, before the tiny light of Christ at Christmas grows into a blinding flash at the resurrection.

Only by outfacing death can we apprehend resurrection. For resurrection is the antidote to death. Only by entering into the dark, and allowing the dark traction on our lives, can we find the meaning of light its miraculous nature and its wondrousness.

But darkness has different effects on different people. For those who are afraid, darkness is likely to produce anger and rage. A primitive response is to meet fear with fear. Perhaps, our anxious instincts surmise, there may lurk a hidden weakness in the darkness we have not seen which may take fright if we shout and rage back. This is the pagan response in the face of a terrifying unknowing.