Entering the Christmas Mystery with Zechariah: The Dawn from on high shall break upon us!

“In the tender compassion of our Lord, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79).

1. Zechariah, the Seer

In the Hebrew Bible (OT), “Seer” depicts a prophet, or a prophetic character, who is gifted with divine visions or insights into God’s will, one who sees with spiritual eyes the meaning of things and events that escape the ordinary. One of the earliest occurrences of this term is recorded in 1 Samuel 9:9. Verse 19 names Samuel, the last of Israel’s Judges before the monarchy, as a seer. It was he who revealed Yahweh’s choice of Saul as the first King of Israel. Gad is also named as David’s seer (2 Samuel 24:11), and God used him to reveal his will against David for conducting a military census of the people. Granting this understanding, many of the Old Testament prophets are likewise seers. Though the expression is not used in the New Testament, the role and ministry of “seer” is fulfilled prominently by Zechariah and then his son, John the Baptist.

I invite us to enter into the most august mystery of the Incarnation through the spiritual eyes of Zechariah, precisely as a seer of God. Stunned into silence at the vision of the Archangel Gabriel while fulfilling his priestly office in the temple, Zechariah regained his speech only at the birth of his promised son, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah. (Luke 1:5-25; 57-66). As soon as he regained his speech, he burst forth with a prophetic canticle in praise of God’s gracious will on behalf of his people. He revealed, as it were, the depths of the divine mystery about to be fulfilled—“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, he has visited his people and redeemed them. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior in the house of David his servant, as he promised by the lips of holy men, his prophets from of old. … In the tender compassion of our Lord, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”  (Luke 1:67-79).

In these words, Zechariah inhabits the prophetic space of a seer and declares the marvels the Lord is accomplishing in the midst of his people. He takes into his heart the hope of Israel, into his words the message of the prophets of old, so that there came forth from his lips the proclamation of the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise of old. Because of his tender mercy, in remembrance of his holy covenant, the oath he made to Abraham and his progenies, in fulfilment of all the prophetic utterances of old, God is doing something: He is bringing redemption and salvation to his people, through the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ, descended of the line of David. By his covenant and promises God bound himself to his people and in Jesus Christ, he has definitively professed his saving love (Ratzinger, One Covenant, Many Religions, 74, 75). But in what does this salvation consist?—In the breaking of the Dawn from on high, in the appearance of the Light amidst the darkness and the shadow of death cast upon the world by sin.

2. Jesus, the Light that dawns from on high

From the very first moment of creation, the very first thing we hear the Creative Word of God doing is to bring forth light to drive away that primal void described as an engulfing darkness—“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. … And God said, let there be light: and there was light.” (Gen 1:2, 3). Two things are of crucial importance here:

a. An understanding of darkness: Notice here that that primal “darkness” is described as a “void” or “formlessness.” In metaphysical terms this literally means “non-being,” that is, emptiness, nothingness. For something to exist, it has to have a “form” or “shape” or “figure,” or “boundaries” that limit it and distinguish or differentiate it from all else around it. To help us think through this, imagine yourself tied up in an immensely dark room with absolutely no light. Since you have no other way to experience the room but your sense of sight, your knowledge of the room is “empty”—it seems to you that nothing exists in the room. Then, all of a sudden, the lights are turned on, and you discover you are surrounded by all kinds of things. It is the light that helps you notice the “forms” or “shapes” (and hence the existence) of these things. But now, in the case of that primal darkness before creation, since it represents the absolute nothingness besides God, the “appearance of light” does not simply reveal things not seen before but actually creates these things. Therefore, when God said, “Let there be light, and there was light,” light was indeed created. It was created by the very Creative Word of God, spoken into the darkness of “nothing.” And since even our common sense tells us that it is light that dispels darkness (and of course helped by scripture), then, we can infer that this Creative Word must also be Creative Light. For it was the very first Light that gave form to all things and made possible even the existence of the light (day) in which created things are seen and known. God separated this created light from night and called it day. This likewise means that it is this “Creative Light” that makes human beings see and know. Even Aristotle came close to this truth when he postulated the difference of the “active intellect” and the “passive intellect”—the latter being man’s capacity (potency) to know things and the former being the immaterial, unchanging, and everlasting illuminating light (from without) that makes it actually know things (De anima III, 4, 5). That aside, the darkness now called night was no longer absolute darkness, but only relative, understood as the lessening of daylight in the alternating cycles of day and night, months and seasons. But who is this Creative Word of God that speaks everything into being, beginning with light?

b. The “Word” spoken by God, is the Light of the World: The very opening (prologue) of John’s Gospel helps us answer this question. He says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcomeit. … The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1:1-14).

How so beautifully the whole of scripture comes together in these words of the Evangelist John! Very clearly, illumined by divine wisdom, he communicates the hidden mysteries of God:

• Jesus Christ is the Word of God, spoken at the dawn of creation, through whom all things were created, the first of which was light. It is this very same Word of God that becomes incarnate (in the flesh) at Christmas. This is the decisively new element of Christianity, unthinkable in every age or culture: The Word became flesh. (Ratzinger, God is Near Us, 20).
• This God-who-is-near-us in the person of the Incarnate Word is likewise Creative Light. For as St. John further notes, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 Jn 1:5). Jesus is the Word by which the Father speaks all things into being and he is the Light that gives form to all things, dispersing that primal void or darkness of “nothingness.” It is still he who sustains all things in being (Col 1:17). Therefore, he is always in the world, for the world was made through him, even though the world did not recognize him. (Jn 1:10).
• No wonder, then, John calls him the life that is the light of mankind. The light that shines in the darkness, and that the darkness has not and cannot overcome. The true light that gives light to everyone. 

But if the light was already spoken into that primal darkness, then why should this light, as John says, be coming into the world? Or why would Zechariah now be blessing God for the Dawn that is breaking upon his people Israel? Or again, of what purpose is our rejoicing at Christmas that the Light who is the Word is becoming flesh?

The answer to these questions rests in an understanding of the “second darkness” that threatened to dim the radiance of that first light of creation—the darkness of sin.

3. The Darkness of Sin and Jesus as the Light of Grace and New Life

Throughout the scripture, the metaphor of “darkness” is used to describe sin, suffering occasioned by the absence of God, and ultimately death (the wages of sin). This is such a fitting usage, for just as the primal darkness, the void, or nothingness symbolizes the “absence” of God or his creative power, so too does sin, the willful turning away from God by the free creature. Sin plunges the soul into a comparable void or formlessness, for strictly speaking, it is the light and grace of God that is indeed the life and form of the human person. Remember, we are made in his image and likeness, and our destiny or goal is to come to the perfection of this image and likeness. And again, who is the perfect image of God but Christ Jesus himself, into whose “form” we are being transformed with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3:18).

This truth shines forth ever more readily in those words of St. Paul as he describes how he used to live in the darkness of sin (persecuting the Church of Christ) but received his conversion on the way to Damascus thanks to the blazing light from heaven followed by the voice that identified itself as Jesus Christ. In this conversion encounter, Jesus commissioned Paul “to open the eyes [of his people] and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in [Him].” (Acts 26:18). The contrasts herein contained show us very clearly what darkness and light stand for: Darkness refers to sin and the power of Satan, whereas light refers to faith and God’s forgiving grace that dispels the darkness of sin. Or again, think of when Judas received the bread from the Lord himself at the table and left the table to go and betray the Son of Man into the hands of the wicked, that he might be killed, and St. John interprets his leaving as nightfall—“As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.” (Jn 13:30).

Yes! It was night! That second darkness (of sin, of Satan and his rivalry against God’s creation) was threatening to sniff out the light, but as John assures us from the beginning, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcomeit.” (Jn 1:5). That Light is Jesus Christ, the life of the world. Here too is biblical paradox at its best—Jesus gives us the light of grace that frees us from the darkness of sin and brings us back to the presence of God only by himself being handed over to the prince of darkness. Likewise, he gives us eternal life only by himself, life itself, being swallowed into the darkness of the shadow of death, thereby defeating darkness and death from within. To use an Augustinian metaphor, he was the “bait” that destroyed darkness and death from within.

This victory is remembered and celebrated year after year in the ecclesial memory of the great liturgical vigils—of Christmas (as we can at last sing and hallow the “night” as silent and holy, for into the night has dawned the eternal Light from on high, calming its turmoil and transparentizing its dreadful darkness) and of Easter (hailed as the holiest of nights, for the Holy One of Israel is in its midst as redeemer and savior, vanquishing the second darkness, death, from within. “Night” is overcome by the “bright morning star” (Rev 22:16) dawning from on high! For as John says, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” (Jn 1:9). Not that he has not always been in the world, remember that all things were made through him (Jn 1:10): He is the divine imprint of intelligence and light that makes all things knowable and meaningful. But when we say he is coming, we refer to his definitive “appearing” to vanquish the “second darkness” introduced by the seductive deceit of the tempter that obscured mankind’s vision of truth and grace, threatening to snuff out the gift of that first light of nature, therefore plunging mankind into the darkness of sin and death. That is why John says, “He [the Light] was in the world … but the world did not recognize him” (Jn 1:10). Our vision had been obscured! His second and definitive appearing, therefore, cast off the veil blinding us, such that recognizing him at last, and accepting his creative power to re-fashion in us, now supernaturally, that original image and likeness of God, we might be re-born “not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision, but of God.” (Jn 1:12-13). It is for this purpose, John declares, [that] “The Word [he who is Light] became flesh and dwelled among us,” and seeing his glory, we saw the glory of the Father (Jn 1:4), the very same glory into which we are being transformed (2 Cor 3:18).

Indeed, Christ the Light truthfully declares of himself—“I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (Jn 8:12). In these words, he not only speaks of that natural light and life with which we were gifted at the dawn of creation, but of the gift of eternal life, the light that illumines our path through the “shadow of death” and brings us unscathed by the fangs of death, unengulfed by the abyss of darkness and formlessness, to the other side of physical death, eternity with God.

4. Indeed, the Dawn from on high is breaking upon us!

Yes, Zechariah, the Light you foresaw has dawned upon us!

This is the great news of Christmas: The Light, who is the Word from all eternity, has indeed become flesh and has pitched his tent among us. With Isaiah, we rejoice, “[For] the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone, [bringing] them abundant joy and great rejoicing.” (Isaiah 9:1-3). Confidently, then, St. Paul assures us, “Beloved: The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires.” (Titus 2:11, 12). Of course, “god-less-ness” is living in the absence of God, which is equal to the darkness of sin. But thanks to “our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness” (Titus 2:13, 14), we can indeed walk in the Light.

Yes, indeed, the very same angelic visitation that had imbued Zechariah with the prophetic annunciation of the “Dawn that shall break upon us,” has now aroused in the lowly Shepherds of Bethlehem the unending joy of the “appearing” of this long-awaited Light—“Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’” (Luke 2:10-14).

Yes, Zechariah, Mary’s baby has come! David’s heir has appeared! The Dawn has shone upon us! What you awaited, we have received! It is Christmas!

This Christmas, may we pause in gratitude and praise of our God, who comes to us in the flesh, to dispel the darkness of our sin, of our life without God, and to guide our feet into the fullness of God’s peace. May we keep this light undimmed by sin into Easter, into the heavenly Jerusalem.

A very merry and blessed Christmas!

Fr. Tegha (tnji@nd.edu)