Acts 8:1-8 / John 6:35-40
If we can remember the beginning lines of the novel "A tale of two cities" (Charles Dickens), it goes like this: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of
wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it
was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the
season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair…
That passage makes marked use of anaphora, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of consecutive clauses—for example, “it was the age . . . it was the age” and “it was the epoch . . . it was the epoch. . . .” This technique, along with the passage’s steady rhythm, suggests that good and evil, wisdom and folly, and light and darkness stand equally matched in their struggle.
And that is also a reflection of life and its cycles of good and evil, wisdom and folly, light and darkness, etc.
We have just celebrated the Resurrection. It was a time of light and joy. But following that, as we heard in the 1st reading, was a time of evil and darkness that began with the martyrdom of Stephen and then a bitter persecution started against the Church.
But even in the midst of that time of evil and darkness, there were little lights that flickered and showed that the darkness cannot overcome the light. Also it is interesting to note that there is a unit of measurement for light (lux or lumen) but none for darkness.
One of those lights was Philip who went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Good News of Christ to them, and there was great rejoicing in that town.
The light that we have received at our Baptism needs to be nourished by Jesus, the Bread of Life so that just like a candle whose light is fuelled by the wax, the light of our faith can continue to burn when we are nourished by the Bread of life.
Then even in the best of times or worst of times, whether in wisdom or foolishness, whether in belief or incredulity, whether in hope or despair, our light will continue to shine through the darkness.