The Church has a long tradition of absorbing what start as pagan traditions, but by being Christianised become Christian traditions after a while. We see this today as we celebrate the feast of Saint Lucy. She was a young girl who suffered martyrdom under the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the year 303. The date of her death, the 13th of December, was considered the longest night of winter according to the old calendar. This night was not only the longest, but also the night when Lucifer and all his evil demons went about, threatening both man and beast. If we look even further back in history, we see how this belief is connected to the pagan traditions, where mid-winter sacrifice was performed to appease the gods. The name ‘Lucy,’ which is etymologically connected to the Latin word for light, and so is also connected to the name ‘Lucifer’, thus reminds us of the forces of good and evil that we face in our lives.
If we turn to Saint Lucy, the tradition tells us that she was given the grace of great lucidity and clarity of vision, which made her a powerful instrument in God’s hands. Her first miracle was performed as she went on a pilgrimage to Catania in Sicily, to the grave of Saint Agnes, to pray for her mother who was seriously ill. On her way there, Saint Agnes appeared to her and said: 'Sister, why come to me to ask for something that you yourself easily can give your mother? Your faith has healed her!'
This was the beginning of the cult of Saint Lucy, and soon many miraculous stories came about. One of them talks of a young man who fell in love with her because of her exceptionally beautiful eyes. Without further ado, Saint Lucy, it is said, tore out her eyes and sent them to him on a plate. This led to an immediate conversion of the young man, and Lucy herself was blessed with a new and even more beautiful pair of eyes, and this is why saint Lucy is also the patron saint of eye sight and of blindness. I think we should add here that this kind of manoeuvre requires exceptional blessings and divine intervention, so don't try this at home!
But what we may try at home is to let our sight be purified and filled with light. Jesus says that 'Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.' (Luke 11: 34-35)
Through an inner transformation we may be able to better discern between good and evil, and to choose the will of God in our lives. As we proceed in this period of Advent, let us then strive to change our vision, so that our self-centred 'No' may be transformed to a deepened and whole-hearted 'Yes' to Christ our Lord.
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