Spiritual darkness occurs when there is an absence of God. God always calls us to repentance. Repentance involves letting go of all that leads to darkness – which is of the kingdom of the enemy, and moving to the light where God is. We live in a time of confusion and growing darkness but unlike the people of Isaiah’s time we have seen the light. We can always find our way in the darkness through the Word and in the Eucharistic Presence which brings clarity of thought, relief from what weighs us down, rest, peace and refreshing to our spirits. We need to draw near and frequently to this Light. Jesus is still in our midst as He was in Zebulun and Naphtali.
Human nature causes us to gravitate towards certain ideologies and personalities and the enemy of our faith will encourage us in subverting our line of thought because he conquers through division.
A few years after Jesus’ ascension, His followers were divided among themselves as witnessed in the 2nd reading of St Paul’s appeal for unity in the church in Corinth. Around 1,000 years later the first major split occurred when the Eastern Orthodox Church broke away from the Roman Catholic Church over theological and political differences. Then about 500 years ago came the Protestant Reformation. As a result, we have thousands of Christian denominations in the world all proclaiming to have the truth.
In all these, unity in the Holy Spirit will triumph and at last all will be made one in Jesus Christ.