Spiritual Equinox: Fact or Fiction?

I was reading Magnificat this morning and came across this article by Fr. James Sullivan.  I passed him later today in the hallway at work, and asked permission to post the article. Here you go! 

Spiritual Equinox: Fact or Fiction?

On the twenty-third day of this month, there will be the same amount of daylight as there is night.  This is called the autumnal equinox, when the axis rotation of the earth around the sun makes this possible twice yearly.  In the spiritual life we are often faced with the darkness of our lives (the night) and the refulgence of Christ’s life (the day).  We may even be tempted to think that a good balance of both is normal, even to be perfectly balanced as the equinox is.

In truth though, as Saint John reminds us in his First Letter: “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all” (1:5).  Sin has no real place in our life yet often enough we find its presence real enough to drag us deeper into darkness.   Christ proclaimed Himself to be the light of the world and that means most especially that He is the light of my world, of your world, of my life, of your life.  It is not a balance of light and dark but only the fullness of light.

And that is why even in the night of our sin, we continue to turn again to Christ.  He is the eternal day which has no equinox.  “Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day” (Psalm 139:12).

Fr. J. M. Sullivan, O.P., serves as Novice Master for the Dominican Province of Saint Joseph at Saint Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, Ohio.