As Christmas comes we are reminded of "Peace on Earth." But peace often seems far away in a world fractured by violence, disease and hunger. The Christmas theme of peace on earth should increase our longing for peace on earth. It should augment our dissatisfaction with violence and injustice. It should amplify our hope for the future even as it motivates us to be peacemakers wherever we can. "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth"(Jn.1:14). The Word if God, who was with God and indeed, who was God" (Jn. 1:1), became human in the baby Jesus. Rather than standing back from our broken world, rather than fixing it from a distance, God chose to enter this world as a vulnerable baby. As this baby grew, he would know pain and grief, and confusion, and loss, and everything else common to human beings (except sin, Heb.4:14). Ultimately he would know the ultimate pain wrought by our sin as he "became sin" for our sake on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21). The good news is that God has drawn rear, and still draws near.
Our God has enter into our reality in Jesus Christ. And this God also is with us (Emmanuel) in our pain and suffering. What God did through the Incarnation is the beginning of true Peace on earth evern though it is not yet fully here. The brokenness of our world, and indeed, of our own lives, drives us to the only one who brings wholeness. In this world that is still shrouded in darkness and despair, he is our shining hope. He invites us to find room with him among the downtrodden and share our lives with the poor and the outcast. It is among them that we find him still at work, still suffering in solidarity, still sharing his life.
To really celebrate Christmas is to make room for this one in our lives and in our world, to come bearing him the gift of ourselves in an outpouring to the oppressed. This is where we find hope and the deep enduring joy of Christmas.
May our Christmas be full of joy, although we live in a broken world that longs for peace, justice and an end to poverty!
