LIVE IN GOD'S PEACE
What are we to do? Well, that
is precisely what Advent is all about. We are to prepare for the celebration of
God's Presence as one of us.
In his 1995 World Day of
Peace Message, Blessed Pope John Paul II stated:
"Faced
with the challenge of education, the family becomes 'the first and fundamental
school of social living,' the first and fundamental school of peace."
In this and many other
writings he promotes the family and the true dignity of women, in an age and
world which often maltreats the family, misrepresents women's identity and
mistreats their inherent beauty, made in the image and likeness of God. Indeed,
women are at the very heart of the family, and it is usually from
"mom" that children first learn their Faith, even as Jesus would have
been taught as a little child held in the arms of His mother, Mary.
As He grew to manhood, full
of wisdom and grace, Jesus enjoyed great love in the family of Mary and Joseph.
From them He learned about God, about the Jewish faith, about human life and
the place of man in God's creation. It is about the future Messiah that the
prophet Isaiah writes: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him: a
Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of strength, a
Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and His delight shall be the fear
of the Lord" (Is 11:2-3a). All this came to pass for the boy who grew to
be a man at the knee of Mary and in the carpenter's shop of Joseph. All this
was needed for the One Who would die on the Cross because of human sin.
Blessed John Paul II
continued his address: "When women are able fully to share their gifts
with the whole community, the very way in which society understands and
organizes itself is improved, and comes to reflect in a better way the
substantial unity of the human family. Here we see the most important condition
for the consolidation of authentic peace" (XXVIII World Day of Peace).
The Psalms speak of justice
and peace in connection with Jesus, "the King's Son." "Justice
shall flourish in His time, and fullness of peace forever" (cf. Ps 72:7).
The peace that Isaiah describes on God's holy mountain - when the wolf and the
lamb, the baby and the cobra will live peacefully together - is a peace made
possible only by the Lord. Such justice and peace are brought about in a
significant way by the civilizing influence of women who, as Christ's
disciples, help to spread the Gospel to the entire world, beginning with each
little child.
St. Paul tells us how this
happens, in part: "Whatever was written previously was written for our
instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement in the Scriptures we
might have hope" (Rom 15:4). From the Scriptures and the Church, we learn
to accept one another, cherishing each other's dignity as a person made in
God's image and likeness. This was essentially the message of John the Baptist
when he preached about "A voice of one crying out in the desert, 'Prepare
the way of the Lord, make straight His paths'" (Mt 3:3b). Reform your
lives, repent; do not presume that just because you are sons of Abraham that
you will be saved. Instead, take action and produce the fruit of personal
conversion. "God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones"
(Mt 3:9). Saying this, John showed that the spiritual childhood of a disciple
before the Father, and openness to the Holy Spirit, are what is necessary to
become disciples of Jesus Christ.
I was in the store the other
day and I heard someone mutter, "I am not going to make it! I am not going
to make it!!!" This woman doesn't think she will have all the preparations
needed to have a nice Christmas - gifts, wrapping, sending mail, meals that
will need to be prepared, and so on. The preparations for what we have turned Christmas
into bring us so much stress that we forget what Christmas really is. Yes, we
all know we want to keep Christ in Christmas, but the steps needed to summon up
what we think are necessary feelings and emotions have overshadowed the meaning
of the feast we celebrate. The prescribed Christmas feelings of love, joy and
peace, cannot flow from the solid month of stress that begins the day after
Thanksgiving!
So, what are we to do? Well,
that is precisely what Advent is all about. We are to prepare for the
celebration of God's Presence as one of us.
What I've found and have
mentioned to people many times before, is that God cannot be outdone in
generosity! Not just in generosity with our money, but in generosity with our
time. Here's a wonderful Divine paradox: The busier we are, the more time we
need to set aside for the Lord. The more time we set aside for the Lord, then
the better our priorities are accomplished. What are we to do?
Mary stopped to enjoy the
presence of the Lord while her sister, Martha, was busy about other things. We
can do both, enjoy the presence of the Lord and prepare well for the
celebration if we unite both. Our preparations must flow from our prayers, and
then the Lord will make Christmas happen. It is in God's family, the Church,
that we learn the true meaning of love, joy, peace, justice, family and the
reign of God. At the knee of our mothers and at the foot of the Cross, we learn
what God has planned for those who love Him.