Let us turn our thoughts to Christmas Eve. May our ears delight in hearing this cherished hymn: “Silent night, holy night! All is calm, all is bright.”
As we meditate on Christmas, our minds – and even our ears – naturally recall the luminous and harmonious words with which “a multitude of the heavenly army,” suddenly appearing beside the Angel bearing tidings to the shepherds of the Redeemer’s birth, praised God, proclaiming: “Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will” (Lk 2:13-14). This proclamation, of a simplicity that even a child could grasp, embraces profound truths.
What is peace, after all?
How often, during this turbulent year that is ending, we have heard peace discussed. But we have heard little of “glory to God in the highest”; and each day we see fewer men “of good will,” filled with love of neighbour, and well disposed towards one another.
This prompts a question: Why do people long for peace, yet do not find it? What exactly is peace?
Some people consider peace to be a state of well-being, free of illness, hardship and risk; a state in which one journeys through earthly life surround by uninterrupted delights. For them, God’s glory has nothing to do with peace on earth. They are men and women of the mindset that this glory is entirely meaningless.
Now, God’s glory is inseparable from peace on earth. If men do not give God the glory due to Him, the evident consequence is that there will not be peace in the world. When adoration of money, the divinization of the masses, the unbridled search for pleasure, the despotic reign of brute force, when, in a word, paganism in all of its manifestations invades the face of the earth, the result is the lack of peace we experience today. We seek peace and do not find it. It refuses to dwell with us.
As St. Augustine teaches, peace is not just any sort of tranquillity, it is the tranquillity of order. Accordingly, there is only true peace where order reigns. Amid disorder there can be plenty of tranquillity, such as that observed in the stagnation of a swamp… but there is no peace.
Let us turn our eyes to the Child Jesus
In view of this, we notice all around us that there is an abyss between the ideal and the prevailing reality. In our minds, justice and injustice, good and evil, virtue and stand opposed.
Today, we have apparently managed to conquer the entire world. Science and technology are at our disposal, rendering many practical services. Machines and more machines carry out tasks with surprising efficiency. Nevertheless… we do not enjoy tranquillity, morality is wanting, integrity has become a rarity and, above all, faith is lacking.
An old psychiatrist commented to me that even the sick, when they lose their sense of religion, do not have peace of soul. Restlessness corrodes the hearts of our contemporaries. As we try to imagine how things could be made right in this earthly life, what better way than to turn our thoughts to Christmas Eve?
Let us allow our ears to delight in the strains of this hymn, so well known and so often sung: “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.” Stille Nacht uplifts us each year with its expression of compassion for the newborn Infant God, as if to say to us: this infinite God is so small, and this small God is so infinite. When we hear or sing it, this beautiful Christmas carol stirs our hearts with tenderness and respect.
Let us turn our eyes to the Divine Infant. A great Catholic of the past century said: “Lord Jesus, God made man, Thou art the Prince of Peace among men. Without Thee, peace is a lie, and, in the end, everything becomes war.”1 We see Him in the nativity scenes, during the Christmas season, in the awe-inspiring poverty of a cave, flanked by the Virgin Mary, His Blessed Mother, and St. Joseph. We contemplate Him in the weakness of a baby lying in a crude and poor manger!
It is He who invites us to change the course of human history, to escape the impasse that fills us with sadness. He is inviting us to strike out on the path of austerity, of love of the cross, of justice in response to every form of iniquity, of detachment from illicit pleasures, and to purity of life in a depraved world.
Peace must be built up in hearts
If humanity were to walk in obedience to God’s Law, this moral crisis, this crisis of faith and this religious crisis would soon end. The responsibility truly lies with us. A metanoia – a change of mentality – must be effected in each one of us. Without this, the result will be as futile as the attempt.
So as we kneel before the nativity scene, gazing with admiration at the small images of the Holy Family, touched to see how God put Himself within our reach, let confidently ask for our personal reform and that of our neighbour. In this way we will have truly found the solution to the contemporary crisis.
“First of all” – affirmed Benedict XVI –, “peace must be built up in hearts. It is there, in fact, that sentiments develop that can nurture it or, on the contrary, threaten, weaken and stifle it.” And he wisely added: “Moreover, the human heart is the place where God intervenes.”2
In the Holy Mass, as the moment of Communion approaches, the faithful pray in chorus: “Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.” May the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph pour out upon all of us their blessings, filling our hearts with the holy and pure joys of Christmas, and granting us true peace – the peace of Christ. ◊
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