Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44
Theme: Longing for Peace
By Michael McCabe, SMA
We begin our new liturgical year with the season of Advent – four weeks of preparation for Christmas. With its special readings and attractive symbols (wreath and four candles) Advent is designed to help us to appreciate more fully the significance of Christ’s first coming, to look forward to his second coming, and to open our hearts to him now as we celebrate his presence with us.
An ardent yearning for peace marked Israel’s long period of waiting for the first coming of Christ. A tiny nation wedged between huge and ambitious nations constantly vying for superiority, Israel – for much of its history – lived under the sovereignty of these larger nations. Wars were almost constant, many with devastating consequences for Israel. Naturally the people grew weary of war, weary of the divisions that had torn their country apart, weary of the instability of a world where power and might prevailed and the weak and powerless suffered constant oppression. However, the people knew that their God was a God who had heard the cries of their ancestors when they lived as slaves in Egypt, and who intervened to relieve their oppression. They knew that God would not remain indifferent to their plight, for he is the Lord of history who ‘puts forth his arm in strength and scatters the proud-hearted; brings down the powerful from their thrones and raises up the lowly; fills the starving with good things, and sends the rich away empty’ (Lk 1:51-53).
So they hoped and dreamed. They longed for a time when God would finally establish his reign of peace and justice on earth and restore all creation to what he intended it to be. They dreamed of a time when the divisions that had torn their people apart would be healed and they would be united as God’s chosen people in a world at peace. This dream – this hope – is poignantly evoked by Isaiah in our first reading today. Isaiah envisions a time when the God will intervene decisively to break the recurring cycle of war and violence. ‘Then he will judge between the nations and arbitrate between many peoples. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, no longer will they learn how to make war’ (Is 2:4).
Two and a half millennia later, these words of Isaiah still resonate with us as we yearn for a world where war will be no more. Despite the coming of Christ and his inauguration of God’s universal reign of love, justice and peace on earth, Isaiah’s vision of a world at peace under God is still far from being a reality. To echo the words of Jesus, as he wept over Jerusalem, we have not discovered the way to peace: ‘If you too had only recognised on this day the way of peace! But in fact it is hidden from your eyes’ (Lk 19:42). We have not yet learned how to live as children of a loving Father and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. We inhabit a world where ‘the madness of war’ (Fergal Keane) continues to tear asunder the fabric of civilisation, yielding an unholy harvest of destruction and misery. Almost daily our TV screens bring us horrific images of the ongoing wars in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza. According to a recent U.N. Report, there are a total of 59 active conflicts currently raging in more than 35 countries – the most since 1945 – and affecting the lives of almost 2 billion people.
So, as we await Christ’s second coming, we continue to dream Isaiah’s dream of a world where war is no more – the dream echoed by Pope Paul VI in his historic address to the United Nations on 4 October 1965 when he said: ‘No more war, war never again’. We long for that day when, in the words of St Paul in today’s second reading, the night of war and misery is over and it will soon be daylight. Meanwhile, as today’s gospel reading reminds us, there is something we can and must do now. We must ‘stay awake’ (Mt 24:42). We must remain spiritually alert and keep our focus on the Lord, so that his coming does not catch us off guard. We must, in the words of St Paul, ‘throw off everything that belongs to the darkness and equip ourselves for the light’ (Rom 13:12).
These words remind me of the familiar story of a wise old Rabbi who instructed his students by asking questions. He asked them: ‘How can a person tell when the darkness ends and the day begins?’ After thinking for a moment, one student replied, ‘It is when there is enough light to see an animal in the distance and be able to tell if it is a sheep or a goat’. Another student ventured, ‘It is when there is enough light to see a tree, and tell if it is a fig or oak tree.’ The old Rabbi then spoke, ‘No. It is when you can look into the face of a stranger and recognise him or her as your sister or brother. For if you cannot recognise in another’s face the face of a sister or brother, the darkness has not yet begun to lift, and the light has not yet come’. And peace is still a distant dream!
So we pray:
Come Lord Jesus and let the light of your love lift the darkness from our hearts and make us instruments of your peace.
Amen.
Listen to an alternative audio Homily by Tom Casey, SMA: