There is often a seeming contradiction when we welcome the Prince of Peace into our midst on Christmas Day when the world seems to be torn apart by many ancient conflicts. Our current age is no different when we look at the armed conflicts around our world when we see families torn apart and people forced to flee. There are also natural and human disasters that can beset us through fire, flood, and storm. The world seems to rage with wild tempests that can threaten to destroy us or isolate us from one another. Yet it is in this contradiction that we see the Christ child born.
This is not false hope or a retreat into a private religious view of the world. God seeks us out and labors for us not as a powerful overlord but rather as a vulnerable child who is placed in our hands. Like any child, this changes how we live in the world. No longer are our lives called to centre on our own needs but rather on God's desire to nourish, heal and forgive the ancient wounds that are opened around us. God knows that when left to our own devices our vision becomes clouded and opaque. We miss the reality of our calling to be formed in the image and likeness of God. By taking the form of a young child he gives us pause for thought to see how we wish to live our lives.
This may be the divine pause that we need between Christmas and New Year. Not to make new resolutions that place ourselves at the centre but rather to see how we are called to centre our lives on God who draws us closer together. Our prayer of this age needs to allow us to become a people of prayer who live prayerfully with others. It calls us to be people who reflect on how we live in our own environment in a way that draws us closer together. We are called to act with a spirit of faith, hope and charity that embodies Christ for others. May this be a blessed season for us where we seek to reset our priorities in the light of Christ. May the peace of Christ disturb us!
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