Monday in the First Week of Advent

They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again” (Is. 2:4). As I was preparing this homily, Israel was contemplating a ceasefire with Lebanon. I was mindful of Pope Paul VI’s addressing the United Nations in 1965. “No more war, never again war. Peace, peace must guide the destinies of people and all mankind.” Innocent people are dying because world leaders refuse to come to the table and put an end to their feuds. How apropos the heart-rending words from the final scene of Romeo and Juliet, “Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague! See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love. And I for winking at your discords too Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punished.”

We are preparing to celebrate the birthday of the Prince of Peace and Lord of Life. Christ was born to reconcile a fragmented world. In Christ, God submitted to human outrage and violence, becoming the lamb of sacrifice and refusing to become the enemy. In him, we are shown the way to put an end to the tragic waste of human life in global conflict, capital punishment, domestic violence, abortion, and euthanasia.  Please hear again the words of Pope Paul VI. “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. Never again war, never again war! It is peace, peace, that has to guide the destiny of the nations of all mankind! If you want to be brothers, let the arms fall from your hands. A person cannot love with offensive weapons in his hands” (Pope Paul VI). The only hope for humanity is peace, presented to us in the form of a little child, that needed to be held.