Peace on Earth?

We are in the season of Peace here at Christmas time.  (And it’s still Christmas till Epiphany.)  “Peace on earth,” “peace to all men,” “sleep in heavenly peace,” etc.  Lots of references to peace.  But peace is the last thing many people feel right now.  Anxiety disorders affected 18% of the population in 2016.  It’s significantly higher now.  

How do we find peace in a year like 2020?  Pandemic, racial tension, political division, conspiracy theories.  Lots of people are downloading meditation apps and doing yoga or trying spiritual practices like centering prayer.  And yet peace is elusive for many of us. 

This article from The Rabbit Room struck home for me.  There is a peace that comes from the absence of suffering and fear and disruption.  It’s the peace of “normality,” whatever that is for each of us.  But that’s a tenuous peace, isn’t it?, if it’s dependent on circumstances because circumstances always change. 

And there is a peace that comes from disengagement, from lack of conflict, from freedom from pain. That’s what the deeply misguided priest advocates in A Hidden Life.  And that’s what some white people want in America, the “peace” that comes from not getting involved in racial injustice.

But that is not the peace God promises.  His peace is so much deeper.  It’s a peace that persists in the midst of strife, conflict, pain, suffering.  It’s a peace that’s possible anywhere, anytime, in anything.  Jesus had this peace.  And we know Jesus faced much conflict, strife, pain, and suffering.  

The article I’ve linked above, entitled “The Peace of Pierced Souls,” is well worth reading.  I know this peace is possible because I know people who have it, but I’m not quite there yet.  I think of Much Afraid in the allegory Hind’s Feet on High Places and how hard it was for her to achieve Acceptance with Joy.  It required a long, hard journey with the companions  Sorrow and Suffering, whom she did NOT want to travel with.  That’s us.  We have to accept the presence of Sorrow and Suffering before we can find peace.

So here on this 5th (of 12) day of Christmas, I wish you peace.  Real peace.  The peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7).