That's how the light gets in.

SOURCE: ROSEMARIE MONNERJAHN

Leonard Cohen’s song »Anthem«, has accompanied us throughout this summer. It has been a hot, dry and stressful season. Forest fires, heat waves, drought and sinking rivers have filled the headlines of our summer. There is indeed a crack in everything, including our times of recuperation and recovery.

In the biblical stories there is a special place where the light gets in through the cracks: Bethlehem. God chooses the place of human cracks as the place where he enters our world. This is the place where the child is born. And this is the place where the child can be found, and no other. The place where the cracks are is the place where you can hear angel choirs singing, but you cannot hear them in the temple. Here you can see the star shining, but not in the palace of the king. It is true that only people carrying a crack in their hearts appear at the manger, but only they see the promise of our God.

Therein lays the mission of our Christian lives. We are to bring life and salvation into the world as God does. We must create places where God can enter into life through the cracks. We must build Bethlehem everywhere.

Build Bethlehem everywhere. This is the art and craft we must learn. Everyone knows the cracks of life. We know them by name: abandonment, anonymity, poverty, loss, lack of understanding, rejection, pain, fault lines that run through our lives and relationships: these are our cracks. And in these places, we must make it possible to hear the invitation of the messengers of God. Here we must seek the face of God if we are to live. Here is where we need to build Bethlehem again.

For these are also the places where light can get back into life. Instead of seeing every crack in life as a catastrophe or defeat, as a sin to be condemned or a failure to be judged, Bethlehem shows us another way to deal with the incompleteness and imperfection of life. Look at the cracks in life as God sees them, namely, as opportunities to let the light get in, to expand the possibilities of life and to forge a future beyond the imperfection and incompleteness we already know so well. That’s how the light gets in.

Build Bethlehem everywhere.

Where we encounter abandonment and poverty, or where they seek us out, they can make us more sensitive toward the need for inclusion and community. That’s how the light gets in.

Build Bethlehem everywhere.

Where we have suffered, heavy, tragic and painful losses, they can make us attentive to the great value of life, to the preciousness of the relationships which we relished and which we, perhaps, too often took for granted. They can reawaken in us an appreciation for the heartfelt investment with which so many people serve our lives, accompany our grief and comfort our souls. That’s how the light gets in.

Build Bethlehem everywhere.

Quarrels and confrontation are often unpleasant. Conflict and crisis are often painful and tiresome. Yet, these cracks in life are often the places that lead to moments of clarification and profound change in us. These cracks, be they personal, social or political, offer us the chance to examine our priorities anew, and to change our minds, our attitudes as well as our opinions and actions. That’s how the light gets in.

I am sure that many things were crooked and cracked over the course of this summer. And I am sure this will repeat itself in the seasons that are yet to come. So, the song that accompanied our summer can also be the song that accompanies every season under heaven. We should sing it often, so that we might not forget the lessons of this story of God

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.

Erik Riechers SAC

Vallendar, August 20th, 2026