We never know how long a night can drag until we have spent one in the hospital emergency room, or even survived a garden-variety sleepless night. Saved from murky fear and lonely darkness, we greet dawn with renewed appreciation. We welcome joyfully the first pale streaks in the sky, the first sounds of other people stirring. The blushing bands across the sky can frame inviting potential. To a world starved for beauty, the dawn brings fragile, gossamer patches of pink.
Renewed health can be a dawning, as can a second chance.
Yet all these pale beside the potential opened by a new millennium. All our anticipation is gathered up in this antiphon that prays for a rescue from darkness. Perhaps it suggests that God understands our need for a steady reassurance. Be to us radiant light in the gloom, doors opening when all seems shut, another chance, a better way, the hope of a brand-new era. O King of all Nations, Help us to create a new world of peace.