John 1:5 

On March 30, 1981, a 25-year-old named John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Hinckley was a troubled young man who hoped that his crime would gain him notoriety and the attention of actress Jodi Foster, with whom he had become obsessed. Using a revolver, Hinckley shot the president in the chest from close range, seriously wounding him along with several others. The next day, while recovering from surgery, Reagan wrote in his diary: Getting shot hurts. Still my fear was growing because no matter how hard I tried to breathe it seemed I was getting less & less air. I focused on that tiled ceiling and prayed. But I realized I couldn’t ask for God’s help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed-up young man who had shot me. Isn’t that the meaning of the lost sheep? We are all God’s children and therefore equally beloved by Him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold. 

There is darkness in the human heart that is an effect of Original Sin. Because the darkness is dark, we can overlook it and maybe not realize it’s there until something happens that calls our attention to it. Sometimes, we can become fascinated by the darkness that we find. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote: “If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”  Contemplating the darkness with fascination is dangerous because it is something against which, on our own, we are as helpless as sheep without a shepherd. Unless we’re careful, we can give ourselves over to it and be overcome by the darkness.  

Reagan’s journal entry, however, reveals a different response. It shows an awareness of the darkness within, which tempted Reagan to respond to the assault with hatred toward his attacker, a hatred that threatened to consume him. But in that confrontation with the darkness, there was a moment of grace in which He turned to the Lord and prayed for the troubled young man who had hurt him, thereby dispelling the darkness. It makes one think of Our Lord’s prayer from the cross, asking the Father to “forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

By means of His Incarnation, His passion, death, and resurrection, Christ Jesus enters the darkness to save us from it. In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the evangelist refers to Christ as “the light of the human race.” Elsewhere he writes: “In Him, there is no darkness.” “The light shines in the darkness,” John writes, “and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). By our baptism and our life in grace, the Lord floods our hearts with His light, which shines even in the darkness within us. This allows us to confront the darkness when we discover it, confident that Our Redeemer can redeem us even there. In these dark times, the light of Christ still shines undimmed. Therefore, we must pray for the many mixed-up young people in our midst who find themselves lost and fascinated by the darkness, and for those whose hearts break for them. 

posted 7/20/24