In these times…Being a Person of Peace?

Soon we will be gathering during this Advent time. It is a time of peace, this midnight blue season of waiting. As part of our reflection on the centrality of presence in our focus statement, what might it really mean for us to be persons of peace? What did it mean for the Word to appear among us as a child bringing peace?

From the cradle to the cross, I can’t help but think of the Christ as some mysterious lightning deflector. Wherever he went, violence seemed to find him and try to wipe him out. My observation is that he always deflected that violence to the ground. He grounded it so it couldn’t go any further. This got me to thinking about myself as a person of peace.

Violence visits us all. It might be the thoughtless remark, the snub, or the critical remark, said to me or by me. This can frazzle me, shattering my peace. What if, like some antenna, I simply grounded it, intentionally refusing to send it on, choosing not to react nor to give myself the satisfaction of speaking of it to another? What if I determined violence would die with me, going no further. What would it take for me to do this regularly up front?

Our instinctive reaction is to project it on, to return remark for remark. What if I deliberately grounded it, making sure it ended with me? Could this be just my little contribution to ridding the world of violence? It seems so small a thing…so personal, and no one will even know. But my heart will know, and the One who is the Prince of Peace will know. Maybe, just maybe, there will be peace in my small space, my corner of the world.

I need to stare at the baby asleep in the hay. One day the violence loose in the world will kill him. But in touching him it will die with him. It will go no further. He’s right. The peace he will bring is not as the world gives. It comes from somewhere else. This advent I too want to come from somewhere else.