By Catholic News Service
IN A NUTSHELL
The song of the angels in the Nativity story promises peace on earth. But, the reality is that peace seemingly breaks down with ease in this world.
Christ, the Prince of Peace, was born into the messy, gritty, troubled reality of human life. He promised a peace that the world cannot give.
To be a true Prince of Peace, Christ must rule over all people, for the peace he brings will be realized when all accept his reign.
The angels’ song for the Prince of Peace
By David Gibson |Catholic News Service
Did you ever hear a sound in the night that startled you from sleep, an unsettling sound that left you wide awake and demanded that you investigate its cause? The Gospel of Luke tells of a nighttime disturbance similar to this (2:8-14).
It startled shepherds “keeping the night watch over their flock” some 2,000 years ago in the Holy Land. “Behold,” a voice called out to them.
Luke indicates that what happened in the night really frightened the shepherds at first. It captured their complete attention, of course.
But it was an angel who spoke to them, saying, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news” — joyful news for all — that today “a savior has been born for you.” The angel revealed where the shepherds should look for this newborn child, “lying in a manger.”
Surely the shepherds knew then and there that they would not sleep that night! Instead, they would make their way to the place described to them. First, however, “a multitude of the heavenly host” joined their angel.
All these heavenly visitors were “praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.'”
Pope Francis calls this “the song of the angels.” It is, he comments, “a song that unites heaven and earth.”
On his first Christmas as pope, he asked everyone to join in this little song. He called it “a song for every man or woman who keeps watch through the night, who hopes for a better world, who cares for others while humbly seeking to do his or her duty.”
The song of the angels gives “praise and glory to heaven,” while at the same time promising “peace to earth and all its people,” said Pope Francis.
Indeed, it is a song of peace.
The shepherds of Luke’s Gospel must have been awestruck by all that they heard and saw in the night. “Behold” an angel said to them, and quite soon they beheld an infant named Jesus.
His birth was destined down through the ages to call to mind the words of the Old Testament prophet about a child “born to us” who was titled “Wonder-Counselor” and “Prince of Peace,” a prince whose vast rule is “forever peaceful” (Is 9:5-6).
Jesus’ birth always is recalled among Christians as an awe-inspiring event of astounding beauty — an event to behold and to celebrate jubilantly.
Yet, attaching the title “Prince of Peace” to him assures that in celebrating his birth Christians always will ponder his peacemaking mission in our world, which becomes a commission to his followers, as well.
“God is peace: Let us ask him to help us to be peacemakers each day — in our life, in our families, in our cities and nations, in the whole world. Let us allow ourselves to be moved by God’s goodness,” Pope Francis urged on Christmas 2013.
Today, peacemaking is threaded into the very fabric of the church’s celebration of the Christmas season.
There are wonders to behold and quietly to treasure every year at the time of Christmas. Yet, every wonder of faith is like a two-sided coin. Its reverse side calls believers into action.
So, Christmas is a call to make peace, to give birth to reconciliations of all kinds in marriages and families, in neighborhoods, within a single nation and among nations. This is why the prayer of the church at Christmas so often is a prayer for peace.
In “The Joy of the Gospel,” his 2013 apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis stressed that “by preaching Jesus Christ, who is himself peace,” the church calls upon “every baptized person to be a peacemaker and a credible witness to a reconciled life” (No. 239).
In the mind of Pope Francis, a lack of human dialogue harms peace greatly. But isn’t that another way of stating that the willingness to hear others, to lend time to them by listening with interest and respect to their voices, holds a vital place among the building blocks of peace?
Indifference toward others also harms peace profoundly, Pope Francis makes clear. But he believes that “cold indifference” can be “won over by the warmth of mercy,” a “gift of God that turns fear into love and makes us artisans of peace.”
The song of the angels promises peace on earth. But, the reality is that peace seemingly breaks down with ease in this world. Conflict takes over and people lose sight of the rightful place of justice and love in human existence.
Still, as Pope Francis has said, Christmas means that “God is with us” — with the real us — “in this real world, which is marked by so many things both good and bad.”
Christmas celebrates “the birth of a vulnerable child” called “the Prince of Peace,” Pope Francis points out. This is the incarnate Lord, who “shows us the real face of God, for whom power does not mean force or destruction but love” and mercy.
Gibson served on Catholic News Service’s editorial staff for 37 years.
Peace amid conflict
By Effie Caldarola | Catholic News Service
At one time or another, we’ve all secretly yearned for the Madison Avenue version of Christmas.
You know the one — where beautiful people, clad in designer clothes, gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes as he slips an expensive bauble around her neck under a fashionable tree fit for a department store window. All filmed through gauze. Perfect.
In reality, our Christmases don’t fit that image. Tired, impatient children, lopsided trees heavy with homemade ornaments, dogs smashing stolen Christmas cookies into the carpet — that’s where most of us live.
But for some people, even nagging children and unruly pets might be a welcome respite from struggle this season.
People face all kinds of conflicts and troubles, and sometimes the Christmas season as presented in our culture, in its Hallmark version, can add to the pain and a troubling lack of peace.
Consider those who have experienced the recent death of a loved one. How to find peace with a gaping hole in our heart? What about the divorced or those separated by distance from loved ones?
What of those facing terminal illness, a last Christmas? For those prone to depression, sometimes the societal imperative to be joyful can act like a weight on the emotions.
Financial difficulties, employment struggles, skirmishes over politics that set the holiday table on edge, an addiction problem, marriage problems — life is full of challenges. Sometimes we are simply lonely in a season that celebrates togetherness.
How do we find peace and joy?
We might begin by once again reading the Gospel of Luke’s Christmas story. Christ was not born into a Madison Avenue world. He came into the messy, gritty, troubled reality of human life.
We might place ourselves in the scene as Mary and Joseph search for a place for the baby to be born. Their peace did not come from security, riches or fashion. It came from a deep connection to God. That did not take away their struggles. It sanctified them.
Use your imagination to experience the untidiness of giving birth in a cave or outbuilding.
The first Christmas bears no resemblance to the frivolous and often wasteful celebrations we have created around it. In your imagination, savor the earthy smells, the raw and human sights of the first Christmas. Hear the animal sounds and the first cries of a slippery little newborn punctuating the night air.
When you go to this scene in prayer, do not dwell on your own struggles. Be with Mary and her little family in theirs.
From this beginning, fraught with uncertainty, Jesus spent his life among the poor, the marginalized, the troubled, the sinner. This is the real story of Christmas. It’s in our own struggle, sin and marginalization that Christ waits to meet us.
Devote quiet minutes each day to giving your unrest and burden to Jesus.
It also might help to make a list of seasonal “to-do’s.” Can you eliminate those that add to your stress? Narrow your list. Make “simplify” your mantra. Lower your expectations, of yourself and others.
Instead, make a list of people, the people you love, the people you miss or worry about, including the people with whom you might be in conflict. Resolve to pray for those people daily, and reach out to someone on your list each day.
A short phone call, a hug, a note dropped in the mail, whatever seems appropriate. Focus on loving them. Do not demand or expect payback. Work on your own attitude and don’t dwell on theirs.
If you are experiencing pain or conflict, find a trusted friend, adviser or confidante. Don’t go through the holiday season nursing a grievance or hurt alone. Unburden yourself to someone.
Look outward. Lonely? Call someone who might be lonely as well. Take some clothes to a shelter. Volunteer at a food bank. Socialize.
Christ promised a peace that the world cannot give. Reach out to him.
Caldarola is a freelance writer and a columnist for Catholic News Service.
Christ: light of the world and Prince of Peace
By Nancy de Flon | Catholic News Service
The highlight of Christmas, for me, is hearing the reading from Isaiah (9:1-6) proclaimed at the Mass during the night: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.”
The absence of daylight streaming in through the windows reinforces the sense of darkness and thereby makes this “great light” even more meaningful.
Light images pervade the Christmas season liturgy — especially light that pierces the darkness. It is a metaphor for the new life, hope and peace overcoming the darkness of seeming hopelessness and futility.
What is this “great light” of which Isaiah speaks? He continues: “A child is born to us, a son is given us …. They name him … Prince of Peace.”
Christian tradition understands this Prince of Peace as Christ, who proclaims himself the “light of the world” (Jn 8:12). No wonder the liturgy is suffused with this image during these dark winter days!
The response to the psalm for the Christmas Mass at dawn promises: “A light will shine on us this day: The Lord is born for us.”
And consider the shepherds in Luke’s Gospel (at the Mass during the night): Suddenly an angel appears above their coal-dark fields and “the glory of the Lord shone around them” while the angel proclaims “good news of great joy,” the birth of the Savior. Meanwhile, John, in his Gospel (Christmas Mass during the day, 1:1-18), tells us that “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The Canticle of Zechariah, sung each morning in the Liturgy of the Hours, draws the themes of light and peace together. Zechariah prophesies that through the birth of the Lord “the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
I like the way the canticle uses another metaphor from nature — “the dawn from on high” — for the light that is coming into the world.
Notable by its absence from the Christmas liturgies is this prophetic passage from Tobit (13:11): “A bright light will shine to the limits of the earth. Many nations will come to you from afar … Bearing in their hands gifts for the King of heaven.”
But it is tellingly fulfilled in the Gospel for the Epiphany, in which the story of the Magi emphasizes the universality of Christ’s mission. To be a true Prince of Peace, Christ must rule over all people, for the peace he brings will be realized when all accept his reign.
Remember, then, when you turn on your Christmas lights, whether a single candle in a window or a blaze of colors encircling your tree, that you are proclaiming Christ, the “great light” and Prince of Peace who has overcome the darkness of the world.
De Flon is editor-at-large at Paulist Press and the author of “The Joy of Praying the Psalms.”
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
“Today, the Son of God is born, and everything changes,” Pope Francis said in a Christmas midnight Mass homily 2016.
“Today we once more discover who we are! Tonight we have been shown the way to reach the journey’s end,” he said, and “we must set out to see our savior lying in a manger.”
The reason for our joy: “This child has been ‘born to us’; he was ‘given to us,'” Pope Francis explained, quoting the prophet Isaiah.
And now, 2,000 years later, “every man and woman” has been given the mission of making “the Prince of Peace” known and of “becoming his effective servant in the midst of the nations,” he said.
“We must not be laggards,” the pope cautioned, “we are not permitted to stand idle.”
And when we hear of the birth of the Prince of Peace, he said, “let us be silent and let the child speak. Let us take his words to heart in rapt contemplation of his face. If we take him in our arms and let ourselves be embraced by him, he will bring us unending peace of heart,” he said.
“This child teaches us what is truly essential in our lives,” Pope Francis said.