Truth requires both science and faith; enlightenment without Christ led to Nazism and Communism, argues Australian bioethicist Bishop Anthony Fisher

Preaching on Epiphany, the prominent Dominican bioethicist and bishop of Parramatta, Anthony Fisher, reflected on the journey of the shepherds and the Magi to the Christ-child, the true light of the world. He contrasted the Enlightenment to the truth of the Gospel and noted that the eighteenth-century movement had been followed by terror and totalitarianism

Midwinter’s day for the ancient Egyptians was 6 January and they would gather at the Nile to celebrate the feast of the sun-god Horus Atum. But because the year is not precisely 365 days long, midwinter does not keep still: as the years pass by it shifts slowly back through any calendar. By the time the Romans were top-dogs and so the ones setting the calendars, midwinter’s day had moved to 25 December and so they celebrated Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, on this day when the light began its annual fight-back against the darkness of winter and the daylight began to lengthen. Nowadays the solstice is around 21 December.

As the great English theologian Herbert McCabe OP observed, when the Christians emerged from their dark days of persecution, they decided that rather than suppress these two pagan festivals they would baptise them: so the Western Catholics made 25 December their feast of light, recalling when Christ the True Light came rather privately into the world at Christmas; and the Eastern Catholics made 6 January their feast, when that Light was rather more publicly revealed at Epiphany. In much of the West it became customary to exchange gifts on 25 December, like the shepherds bringing lambs and carols on the first Christmas day; in the East the routine is to exchange gifts on 6 January, like the Magi bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh as we heard in our Gospel (Mt 2:1-12). Because Catholics love to party, soon East and West had adopted each other’s feasts and made one long celebration of 12 days of Christmas, with many gifts and carols, eats and drinks, holidays and holydays – and, since it was originally a feast (or two) of light, there were plenty of candles and, eventually, flashing Christmas tree lights.

The idea that Christ is the light of the world, come for our enlightenment, is a strong one in the New Testament. St John begins his Gospel with his wonderful description of the Word-made-flesh, who came as “the Light that shines in the darkness” and the splendour, afterglow or fireworks of the Father. John the Baptist, he explains, was sent by God not as the light himself but as a witness to the Light. Jesus, on the other hand, is the true Light of God made visible to men. The darkness would seek to overcome Him but could not (Jn 1:1-18).

The two Jonnies – the Baptist and the Evangelist – were not the only ones to think of Christ’s epiphany as the dawning of a new light. St Luke records in his Gospel the lyrics of the Baptist’s father, Zechariah’s song the Benedictus, which Religious sing every morning and which describes Jesus as “the loving kindness of our God who visits us like the sun dawning on high and giving light to those in darkness” (Lk 1:78-9). He also recalls old father Simeon’s song the Nunc Dimittis, which Religious sing at night, in which the baby Jesus was described as “Light to enlighten the Gentiles and splendour to glorify the Jews” (Lk 2:32). St Matthew in today’s Gospel told how wise Orientals followed a comet to Bethlehem and how it halted over the baby and shone with such a spotlight that it “filled them with delight” (Mt 2:1-12). He quoted the Prophet Isaiah saying that “the people in darkness have seen a great light and for those in the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Mt 4:16). For all our Gospel writers Jesus is the light-bringer, wisdom for the confused of mind, joy for the bleak of heart.

Our age imagines itself uniquely enlightened. Some have dubbed it “the age of enlightenment” and earlier times as “the dark ages”. And there is indeed something enlightened about our times: there are ever-growing insights of science and philosophy, and new applications in technology and politics. Medicine and human rights, for instance, made significant advances in the “enlightenment” centuries. Yet there is a certain vanity in any age imagining it is more enlightened than all others before it. The Age of Enlightenment was supposed to cast off superstition and replace it with cool reason: but it heralded the reign of terror in France in which all political opponents were guillotined and in due course the totalitarianisms of Nazism and Communism. It was supposed to put science and education at the service of humanity, but it also dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and perfected propaganda more than education.

What might the Feast of Light that is Christmas-Epiphany say to our search for true light? Well, today’s Gospel makes clear that wise men have always searched for answers to the big questions about God, the universe and ourselves. Even astronomers and cosmologists, men of reason, need faith. To find Christ who is true Wisdom, even they need light from heaven; to avoid the killing fields of Herod and Pol Pot on earth, they need it too. A truly Catholic approach to truth needs God and man, heavenly angels and earthly shepherds, faith and reason, science and religion, old and new, familiar and exotic. If there is wisdom in the latest science or the oldest Scriptures we embrace them both.

And if we receive these gifts, what do we give in return? The last verse of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Mid-winter asks:

“What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb, If I were a wise man, I would do my part, But what I can, I give him: Give him my heart.”

Today Sr Maria Vu Tran Thuy Linh will make her First Profession and Sr Maria Doan Thanh Thao will renew hers. Their gifts are more precious than gold, frankincense and myrrh: the gifts of themselves. Sr Maria Vu is the eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Vu of Bankstown and has four younger brothers. She joined the Queen of the World Sisters in 2010 and the novitiate in 2011. Though wise men come from the East, wise women sometimes hail from the West and Sr Maria Doan is from Perth. Hers was the first profession I received for this congregation. We are inspired by the generosity of these two women – and that of their families and religious congregation – in offering them to God as religious sisters. We pray that their poverty, chastity and obedience, their life of heavenly prayer and earthly apostolate, may be truly fruitful and fulfilling. Christ comes in this Christmas season as Light from Light, True God from True God. May you, His daughters, also be lights to the nations, enlightenment for every confused mind, warmth for every dark heart.

Bishop Anthony Fisher OP of Paramatta gave the above homily at an Epiphany Mass on 5 January 2014