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The fourth week of Advent is sometimes called “Love.”
And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
I sometimes wonder if we get caught up in the commercialism of Christmas to the extent that we do simply because we’ve come to believe that there’s very little we can do to bring about either “peace on earth” or something as modest as peace in our own small corner of it.
If it’s going to take an apocalypse to change things, as the literalists believe; or if, as the atheists believe, human nature is simply the random result of evolution, then there’s really no point in our attempting to be “better”, is there? And if we can’t be “better”, well then we might just as well indulge ourselves.
After all, if I look after “me” and you look after “you” then all’s fair, isn’t it? And if I happen to be better at looking after me than you are at looking after you – whether that’s by using economic force or physical force or political force, well… surely that’s okay too? I mean, it’s not my fault if you can’t keep up, right?
Right?
So … why doesn’t it sound right?
Well, perhaps it’s because we know better; no matter how much some would try to convince us otherwise.
There is no peace on earth, I said.
Peace, at least the kind of peace that means anything, is only possible when everyone has a real opportunity to live a life of dignity, equality, and security. That only happens when we recognize the interconnectedness – the interdependence – that we all have to each other.
Love – agapé – is like that as well.
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Hate is indeed strong. It always has been. Hate is an easy emotion to stir up in people because it’s rooted in fear, one of our primal instincts. But however well fear may have served us in the dim past, it is an obstacle to us today.
Fear and hatred prevent us from reaching out to each other, from supporting each other, and from becoming everything that we are meant to be as part of God’s Creation.
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor does He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
There is no hatred, no fear in the Nativity.
There is only trust.
The Christ-child, and the Message of the Christ, is the embodiment (or incarnation if you prefer) of a Creator with utter trust – utter faith – in the Creation, in us.
And as long as we’re willing to maintain that faith as well, and to accept that “God”, however we may envision “God”, is indeed “with us”, then the wrong shall fail, the right will prevail, and we will be able to bring about peace on earth and goodwill to all Creation.
