I am afraid of the darkness and the hole in it.
—Martin Luther, “Luther”
And when Martin Luther was struck with plague
in 1527, he refused to leave the city, though he trembled,
though he burned. He felt it was the devil’s assault
sent to reduce him with despair. And reduced, he was.
There is darkness so great we lose all sense of direction,
forget even which way is in. There is darkness
so great that even the holes in the darkness are terrible,
cannot be seen as light. And in that terrible August,
the Reformer argued with God. And all that terrible August,
Luther trusted God’s promises. And he told himself,
Pray. Read. Sing. And the darkness endured.
Sometimes, Luther found, there are darknesses
so great we forget how to sing ourselves. Sometimes,
the only way through darkness, through doubt,
is to teach other people to sing.
