I’ve decided that the focus for this week of advent is peace. I was meditating on our community’s advent theme on the nature of advent—that it is a season of looking forward but also of being present. It was/is really hard for me to think of peace as anything other than something to look forward to because I cannot really find it in the world right now. Every day I work with refugees whose lives have been irrevocably changed by war. They sit in refugee camps and wait for decades for a peace that hasn’t come. I also keep thinking about the war in Afghanistan. I was 12 years old when we first sent troops into that nation and ten years later we are still at war. Several of my friends and family members are leaving or have left to join that fighting and I have this deep fear that it will never end. So then, peace is definitely something we look forward. We wish for and pray for the coming of Christ so that there will be peace. We don’t have a lot of control over peace in the world right now, at least I don’t. I get frustrated and overwhelmed waiting for peace. Meanwhile, I am picking up the pieces of war every day at my work. Really, we all are—there is a lack of peace at home too. We all deal with victims of violence in some way.
So where is the preparation—what do we do presently? How do we actively pursue peace when our efforts to end war seem so ineffective? I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I am repeatedly drawn to a specific part of mass--which we also do in protestant churches—when we turn to one another and say “God’s Peace” or “Peace be with you.” We aren’t saying “peace be between us” as I normally think of peace, but “peace be with you.” We are praying that our neighbor finds peace within their own heart. I think this is the key to what we are pursuing this advent to prepare for Christ. We have to try to make peace with ourselves. Personally, I know that there is a war going on in my mind—my head tells me , “you aren’t good enough, that screw-up doesn’t deserve forgiveness, you didn’t help that person enough.” I’m not very good at forgiving myself—but I need to in order to make peace.
And so, I challenge you this advent season to pursue peace within yourself. Let’s pursue peace in our hearts as passionately as we pursue peace for our clients and for the world. Ask yourself in the quiet of advent “how am I waging war in my soul, and how can I bring peace.”
“God, grant us peace. Peace for the world, peace for our clients, and peace for us. Guide us so that we can find peace in preparation for your coming. And help us not to lose hope that you are coming—that peace is coming."
