Lights Out

With Christmas ending ("the longer Christmas season ... extends either to the Baptism of the Lord for the Ordinary Form (the Sunday after Epiphany) or the Presentation of the Lord for the Extraordinary From [on] February 2nd") [1], the decorative lights that adorn the season no longer light up homes and store fronts, and those who had taken time off to celebrate the holidays with family and friends have returned to their regular schedules.

Not everyone is so lucky.  In a separate part of the world, lights have also gone out but those were not decorative lights but lights that told the universe that a vibrant civilization with intellect existed. That civilization, located in Syria, has been largely decimated.  The country "is shining just a quarter as bright as it was before the war [with the exception of] Damascus, the capital, and Quneitra, near the Israeli border, where the levels of light at night decreased by roughly 35 percent." [2]  In other words, "[n]ighttime light [had] declined by 74 percent across Syria between 2011 and 2014.  In Aleppo, it was 88 percent." [3]

"Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it has been inhabited since perhaps as early as 6th millennium BC.  Excavations at Tell as-Sawda and Tell al-Ansari, just south of the old city of Aleppo, show that the area was occupied since at least the latter part of the 3rd millennium BC." [4]  With 22 percent of lights that still light up at night in Aleppo, Aleppo is not yet a ghost town.  The place might be ruins but it is not yet wiped out.  At least there are people there to connect back to the time when it was first inhabited, people whose ancestors might have not only heard of Christ when He was on earth, but might have also met Him. [5]

As to where the people from Aleppo and the rest of Syria who used to light up the country are, nobody knows for certain.  Many had died; many became refugees.  Those who are responsible for extinguishing the light of life and dimming the light of hope may one day have their light and hope taken away from them for an eternity.  If they do not repent, the Fatima prayer may be of little help.


[1] https://www.catholiccompany.com/blog/does-christmas-end-on-epiphany
[2] http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/12/the-syrian-civil-war-from-space/383257/
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo, Accessed January 16, 2015.  Citations omitted.
[5] The distance between Aleppo, Syria, and Jerusalem, Israel, is 524.56 km or 325.95 miles.  See http://www.distancefromto.net/between/Jerusalem/Aleppo