Daily reflection _ live in God's peace

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.
Deacon John Ruscheinsky
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.