Christmas gives us an opportunity to hone our peacemaking skills – around those tables where we are placed, sometimes uncomfortably, alongside people we may only see once a year – and some of whom we’d prefer to see even less often, if we were honest.
If we’re honest with ourselves, if we admit to ourselves our reluctance to let old wounds heal, or our strategy of avoidance of people we disagree with, or of avoiding topics we’re uncomfortable about, then we are at the start of building peace on earth. For the beginning of making peace from within is to ask ourselves why we act that way, and prayerfully, carefully, begin to work out what we might be able to do to change.
Peace on earth, goodwill to all – the one born in Bethlehem showed us the way, it’s now in our hands to fulfil it.
– from my Christmas Eve (midnight) talk, Peace on earth? Starts within. Happy Christmas, beloved reader.
