Keeping Peace

Like hope, peace can seem elusive right now as so many destabilizing things are going on around and within us. It’s the second week of Advent and we light the candle of peace. Often I associate this with accepting the gift of peace offered us. After all, Christ is called the Prince of Peace and we are getting ready for Him coming.

And yet I was challenged watching See Hear Love last week as the women on the panel talked about how we can’t truly find peace until everyone has peace. If we seek and horde peace only for ourselves but neglect our neighbour down the street or across the world who is anxious, hurting and being treated unjustly, then true and deep peace will elude us.

As I reflect on this and my choices I’m uncomfortable. I am ashamed that so many in the world have not had access to Covid vaccines while we in Canada have taken care of ourselves first and are getting booster shots. Our ‘peace of mind’ about our own health and well being, and protecting the profits of big pharma, are taking priority over justice and equity for our global family. I requested tap water when I went out to eat yesterday but was offered bottled and bought it, something I try to never do because I believe strongly that water should not be a commodity but a public commons. As I baked cookies I was sobered by the fact that I bought cheaper chocolate likely produced through child labour, or at very least poorly compensated farmers. And when my hand mixer died I thought about our throw away society and full cupboards with appliances we rarely use.

This week I’m not so much feeling at peace, and perhaps that’s a good thing. We can equate peace with the world being comfortable for us and not being challenged by the marginalized and oppressed. We can think of it as rest and quiet rather than the whole of creation being put right and able to breathe and live fully. We can see peace as not being at war and yet neglect to reconcile with those who have wronged us or who we have wounded with words or gossip or exclusion.

In Luke 1:46-55 Mary speaks the poetic words of the Magnificat as she and her cousin Elizabeth celebrate their impending motherhoods. She thanks God for not forgetting the poor, for lowering the rich, for scattering the proud and filling the hungry with good things. She is amazed that she would be chosen to carry and birth the Saviour of the world. These are words of power and joy that even someone like her could be invited to play a role in executing justice.

As we seek peace, may we seek it not just for ourselves - an easing of guilt over the problems in society and a respite from things that need our attention - but for all of our neighbours. Perhaps we consider ourselves some of the lowly, but my guess is that most of us are perhaps richer than we think and more proud than we would like to admit. Perhaps the way to peace involves us taking a hard look at the hungry around us who need filling with good things. Maybe it is us who need to be brought low and reminded of our blessings and the need for humility before God.

Then maybe, just maybe, we can embrace the peace that only comes from the child who Mary carried and protected. Maybe we can know that deep level of peace that only comes from God.