Antiphons in the Darkness: O Oriens

O Day-spring, Brightness of the Light everlasting, and Sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

After a sleepless night, the first fingers of the dawn breaking through the curtains are the last thing that you might want to see. After a night of being awake, going over and over again in the mind the troubles of one's life and the worries for the day ahead, the dawn is an unwelcome sign that the day is here. Not only must you get up and face the dreaded day, but you have to do it unrefreshed and unnerved through lack of sleep. The darkness of the night breeds fear and worry as we focus our concerns internally. Yet, Christ bids us watch through the night. We have to be sober and vigilant, and thus we have to face the coming Day of Christ without the refreshment of sleep. Yet, if we put off from ourselves the worries of the world, then there can be no real fear and the light itself will bring refreshment from the heaviness of being sleepy. In the light, our sins will be exposed to all, but in that same light, those sins will be mended, things put right, made clear. There is nothing to fear about the dawning of that Day except for the glorious majesty of God Himself. Our challenge is, despite our tiredness, to sing the praises of the coming Christ, and let His light shine on our lives. However sinful we are, our sincere repentance and His forgiveness will bring us to that marvellous light.