Christmas Eve

Рождество Христово. The Nativity. An icon by Andrei Rublyov.

Here is a poem by the Russian religious philosopher Vladimir Solovyov. The final stanza alludes to the “Prologue” to the Gospel of John, which — after telling how the Word became flesh, and in the Word was life, and this life was the light of men — states the following:

καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
(and the light shines in the darkness, and the light did not encompass it).

The final word in the Greek has two very different meanings, establishing a kind of paradox that is difficult to translate — and one that is of great significance theologically: it means both that the darkness did not accept the light, and yet it did not overcome the light.

We see similar language a bit later in John 3:19-20:

αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ἡ κρίσις ὅτι τὸ φῶς ἐλήλυθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον καὶ ἠγάπησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι μᾶλλον τὸ σκότος ἢ τὸ φῶς, ἦν γὰρ αὐτῶν πονηρὰ τὰ ἔργα.
(and this is the judgment: that the light came into the world, and men loved the darkness more than the light, for their deeds were wicked)

πᾶς γὰρ ὁ φαῦλα πράσσων μισεῖ τὸ φῶς καὶ οὐκ ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸ φῶς, ἵνα μὴ ἐλεγχθῇ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ·
(for everyone who does that which is wicked hates the light and will not come toward the light, lest his deeds be exposed)

Ночь на Рождество

Пусть все поругано веками преступлений,
Пусть незапятнанным ничто не сбереглось,
Но совести укор сильнее всех сомнений,
И не погаснет то, что раз в душе зажглось.

Великое не тщетно совершилось;
Недаром средь людей явился Бог;
К земле недаром небо приклонилось,
И распахнулся вечности чертог.

В незримой глубине сознанья мирового
Источник истины живет не заглушен,
И над руинами позора векового
Глагол ее звучит, как похоронный звон.

Родился в мире Cвет, и Cвет отвергнут тьмою,
Но светит он во тьме, где грань добра и зла.
Не властью внешнею, а правдою самою
Князь века осужден и все его дела.

24 декабря 1894

Christmas Eve

It may be that everything has been profaned by centuries of crimes;
It may be that nothing has been preserved unblemished;
Yet the reproach of conscience is stronger than all doubts,
And what has once been lit in the soul will never be extinguished.

Not in vain has that which is great been accomplished;
Not for nothing has God appeared amongst men;
Not for nothing has Heaven inclined toward Earth,
And the door to eternity’s mansion been thrown open.

In the invisible depths of the world’s consciousness,
The source of truth lives on, unsilenced;
And above the ruins of age-old disgrace,
Its word sounds like bells before a funeral.

Light was born in the world, and Light was rejected by darkness,
But it shines in the darkness, upon the line between good and evil.
Not by some external power, but by truth itself
The prince of this age is condemned — and with him all his deeds.

24 December 1894