Nicodemus in the shadows

For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page, which includes Grindal's current Living by the Word column as well as past magazine and blog content. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.

In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks of dark and light—one of our most primary realities and symbols. How can this be vivid language today, when we can turn the switch and flood almost any place with light any time?

As I wrote my magazine reflection on this text, I was brought far back to my early poetry reading days: to Kenneth Patchen, of all people. He’s a strange poet, somewhat pre-beat, whose work is spiritual, although one could hardly call him an orthodox Christian. Patchen was in that generation that was raised in a traditional Christian world, and the furniture of his mind was Christian to the core, even as he began writing as something of a Dadaist or modernist. This poem has always stuck with me because of its terrifying vision into the world without love at the center.