The night of God
Monday, March 28, 2016
Rogelio Zelada
With solemn leisureliness, a crackling of stars bursts the dark loneliness of the huge mantle that covers the surface of the waters. The endless night was the privileged witness of that great beginning when the Spirit of God, His Word and His Eternal Wisdom, made life, time, space and history.
In the poetry of faith of the biblical world, the darkness of the night preceded the exact moment of creation. The primordial darkness that had framed the beginning of all divine work would be repeated in each and every one of the great moments in the history of the faith of Israel, to define and declare them as extraordinarily essential milestones.
Abram peers into the night, when God brings him out of the tent and compels him to admire the great dome of twinkling stars that envelops the silence of the desert: "Just so will your descendants be." In that same darkness, the smoky torch of the Lord pierces the animals that the patriarch has sacrificed. In this way, the God who has called him to nomadism seals an indestructible covenant with Abram, and his voice announces the beginning of a story of loyalty that is rarely glimpsed.
Amid the darkness, Jacob wrestles with God onto exhaustion; at the end of this enigmatic combat, he becomes strong to face the crossroads that lie ahead, and he receives a new name: Israel.
The ninth plague that punishes Pharaoh’s pride casts the entire land of Egypt into total darkness, except for the children of Israel, who do not lack for light. The night of the 14th of Nisan, the subjugated Hebrew slaves would share their last supper in Egypt, and the blood of the lamb sacrificed for the great spring rite would mark with life the doorposts and threshold of their houses, signaling the beginning of the great liberating feat. At midnight, the justice of God will envelop all the houses in the oppressive country, severing the future of that generation. On that night of the march of no return, an incandescent column will light a path for the fugitives to let them see all the pitfalls along the way, until it makes them cross with dry feet the sea of reeds.
Every year, Israel remembers this memorable night, prolonging the vigil as the great memorial when the Lord faithfully watched over his people.
It is very late at night when an unexpected flash awakens the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem. By looking out at the stars every day, the Magi discover an extraordinary brightness in the Aries constellation and set off to verify the mystery of the great King who has been born.
Matthew recalls with astonishment the fear of the disciples when they see Jesus walking on the raging waters "in the fourth watch of the night."
The night in Gethsemane leaves a trail of pain and a bloody sweat that, as an internalized suffering, designates the beginning of the hour of darkness, marked by the 30 coins of the Iscariot and the cowardice of Peter.
The encounter with the one he has persecuted leaves Paul plunged in an inner night, an experience and a discovery that will awaken him to the light of faith in the Risen Lord in a never-ending Easter. From that moment on, the apostle to the Gentiles would understand that he should always be on guard and wear the armor of the light of Christ, because he has been snatched from the power of darkness.
This same Paul reminds the fractious Corinthian community about the details of the Master’s last supper. He is much perturbed to hear that they have not taken seriously the most important aspect of the breaking of the bread, which is the attention that must be paid to the living and present Christ in the community of believers. The wealthy, who arrive first, leave only a few leftovers for the dockworkers – all of them slaves – who must finish their hard work day before they can get to Sunday dinner. Thanks to this reprimand, we have the first witness account of what happened "on the night the Lord was betrayed."
When Paul reminds us, with the best of intentions, that the Lord's Supper took place at night, he wants to place the Eucharist in the context of the great interventions of God in human history: the night of creation, of the promise, the Passover and the alliance.
Perhaps for that very reason the Gospel of Matthew says that "after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb." In the total darkness of the night after the Sabbath rest is over, the two brave women head to the tomb of Christ, not suspecting that it is already empty and that history has changed forever.
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