“Peace on Earth”: Every Life is Worth Celebrating and Defending
Isaiah talks about the “beautiful feet” of those who announce the good tiding of peace to Israel. But what are human feet, when those feet belong to cadavers? What is the usefulness of voices, when human bodies are lifeless. What is the usefulness of a piece of good news to a ghost town? Announcing that “your God reigns” shows the importance of a people to be ruled to the reign of a king. Not to have subjects is to undermine and change the meaning of rulership and kingship. All these hing on the presence and availability of life, life is first and other things follow.
With our streets littered with the corpses of those killed by Boko Haram, and the video of Nigerian military fighting Boko Haram scavenging for food and water gone viral; with a 24 hours curfew in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, few days before Christmas, and Christmas shoppers killed in Germany, and Russian envoy to Turkey killed in cold blood as a spectacle to the whole world to see; in fact, our world witnesses a new sect, killing as a sign of membership. How apt the epithet “Human Sacrifice: The Ritual of an Emerging Sect,” coined by Elias Halabi. In the midst of these killings, violence, and intimidation, what good news can Christmas offer Christians? What meaning may we attribute to the announcements of messengers of Christmas, be they Angels on Christmas Eve or the prophetic proclamation of Isaiah? Perhaps those who lived under the terrorism of Apartheid, the dictatorship of Abacha, and the constant fear of black racism and imminent deportation from America, have something to teach us: life is worth celebrating, as long as we have it!
One fact to underscore on Christmas Day is “life.” The birthday of Jesus is the celebration of life come upon the planet earth. This life is laden with and it is the groundings for many possibilities. Worries about happiness, peace, love, etc are only possible when there is life. Life is the foundation for earthly existence, for dying and sickness, for sorrow and grief; above all, for happiness and fulfillment or contentment. Those attributes that make us human, life grounds them and make realities to contend with.
Christmas is a covenant of life between God and everything that lives. It is a marriage between God and his creatures. On every continent and in every city, whether town or village, with every birth, life comes anew into the world, God’s solidarity with humans through the gift of life renews itself, and we are reminded of the God who dwells in us, moves in us, rejoices with us and shares our pains and sorrows. By the gift of life, we are no longer loners, we are a community, God journeys with us every step of the way.
At the birth of Jesus, animals were there before humans and angels. Before his birth, there were kings and after him there continue to be monarchs. Leadership theories continue to thrive and governments have come and gone. Life continues to bubble and grow stronger. No matter the degrees of wars and diseases, assassinations and suicide bombing, life have remained resilient; not even death has succeeded in obliterating life. Yes, that is the power of life, it is insurmountable and immortal; its form can only be changed but it can never be exterminated, because life is God himself.
Maybe this saying will help us, were we to take it to heart: “we always work for a better tomorrow, but when tomorrow comes, instead of enjoying, we again think of a better tomorrow; let us have a better today.” Today is Christmas, let us enjoy it!
Christmas Day, 2011
Isaiah 9:1-6; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14
“A Son is given to us . . . Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6)
At last, the day has come; another Christmas is here! We who hoped and prepared for Christmas this Advent; the arrival of Christmas manifests the fulfilment of hope: “a Son is given.” For those who hoped for Christmas 2015, and who have gone to the Father’s house, their hope is fulfilled because they are in the Father’s house, where they see Immanuel face to face.
“A Son is given to us” is unlike any other child: he is God among us — Immanuel! The distance and separation between the Divine and human has been bridged: God the Son is one of us because the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). We now have and are the images of the Divine on the planet earth. Our dignity as human beings has been elevated to that of “god” (Psalm 82:6), imitating God our Father in His Son!
“A Son is given to us” has a mission, the mission to be “Prince of Peace!” The message of the angels, on Christmas Eve, proclaims the mission of the “Prince of Peace”: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours (Luke 2:14)!” The presence of God the Son among us is already the “favour” of God among us. That is not all, the presence of God the Son, in the flesh, points to the future gift of his life at Easter for our redemption. In other words, the hope of Christ’s birth opens the gate for the hope of redemption at Easter.
“Christmas” says that our hope cannot deceive us (Romans 5:5)! “Merry Christmas” says that God is the source of our happiness – “your God reigns” (Isaiah 52:7)! “Glory to God in the highest heaven” says that we need to thank God for the gift of his Son. “On earth peace among those whom he [God] favours” says that God will never abandon his people!
Merry Christmas, one and all!
Christmas Day, 2015
Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18
Rise up and Proclaim Peace and Joy: You are God’s messenger, who counts his blessings!
One day, a man was sitting between two ladies in a taxi. The lady to his right was very beautiful, the one to his left very ugly. Each time the taxi driver negotiates a bend and this man tilts towards the beautiful lady to his right, he yells out: oh Lord, do not lead us into temptation; but when the taxi tilts him towards the ugly lady, he cries: oh Lord, deliver us from evil!
Christmas brings a good tiding — everybody is a child of God, therefore, everybody is beautiful no ugly people exist, not least ladies! Human beauty comes from the divine that dwells in each one of God – “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). As we celebrate Christ’s taking of flesh, Christmas, our vision of humanity is transformed – we do not live in the world of saints and sinners, but in a society composed of sons and daughters of God.
One important fact in the life of a Christian is that he is a messenger of God to announce the beauty of God’s creation, especially the beauty inherent in each human being. Baptism and Confirmation give us the identity of a Christian, and Holy Communion (Eucharist) reveals our identity, not as individuals but a community of believers, the Church and the Body of Christ. If we are Christians, other christs, Christmas is a communal and family celebration. The question is how do we celebrate?
“Isaiah,” a name which means “God saves,” starts out, our first reading, with the bearer of good tidings/news. Every messenger has a message to deliver; in the case of Isaiah today, three massages are proclaimed – peace, salvation and God is king (Isaiah 52:7). Even though the historical context of our first reading is the liberation from Babylonian captivity and the Jewish return to their native country of Judah, our Christmas liturgy draws our attention to a different reality – our experiences individually and collectively of joy because of what the Lord has done in our lives and the lives of our friends and compatriots. It is a day of counting our blessings of life, health, family, friends, finances, survivals from harm and ill-luck, etc.
The triple reasons for happiness Isaiah enunciates, namely, peace, salvation and God is king, summarize the purposes of God’s actions in our lives. “Peace – shalom,” does not mean the absence of war, as far as its Jewish meaning is concerned. It means wholeness – financial blessing, good health, presence of children, long life/longevity, etc. To announce God’s peace-shalom is to count our blessings, those areas of our life where God’s intervention manifests itself. Next, God’s “salvation” is a reminder to us that we are sinners and undeserving of God’s blessings, but God forgives us our sins, in Christ Jesus, and qualifies us for his blessings, all the blessings we enjoy from him. Finally, “God is king” reminds us that life itself is a gift from God for the service of God and not for ungodly lifestyle.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tides” (Isaiah 52:7) is God’s summons for messengers to proclaim that sorrows and misfortunes are not the only experiences of the human person; that joy and peace are still part and parcel of our experiences on the planet earth. That the oppressive and repressive regimes of the world, the greedy and exploitative economic realities of our world today are only living in borrowed time — God is king, so the joy and wholeness he offers us go on, despite man’s inhumanity to man.
The imperfections we notice upon earth do not stop a Christian from being happy because God’s peace-shalom is not premised on a perfect world but on God’s dominion over earth. This imperfect world receives the Son of God, baby Jesus, despite its imperfection. Our joy springs from imitating the Son of God, who, according to our second reading, comes to die for sins and now seats at the right hand of God (Hebrews 1:3). To listen to the voice of God directly, in his Son – Jesus Christ – is to have God among us, journeying through life with us, life in all its messiness and joys. As Gaudium et Spes (1) puts it: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”
The beauty of it all is that God upgrades us in Christ. The statement of our gospel — “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) — speaks of the divine dignity God accords us, in Christ. Just like Christ, but through Christ, we are children of God because of the divine nature we received through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. In other words, the human person is not an irreparable sinner but the image of God capable of great accomplishments!
The angels shouted “glory to God on high,” on Christmas eve, but their voices are now silent, so that your voice and mine may be heard. John the Baptist witnessed to the life of Christ, but he is now dead, so that you and I may be God’s witnesses here and now. Since you and I are God’s messengers of peace and joy, let us shout it out “our God reigns,” despite Boko Haram and ISIL. Even in the midst of misunderstanding and economic meltdown, let us be convinced that even earthly sorrows cannot take away our happiness because we are the “favored” ones of God, just like Mary was told by angel Gabriel, and she hurried to share that message with Elizabeth. If Jesus was born in a manger, having animals as his entourage, money is not the source of our happiness, but Jesus is! Indeed, a voice cries out, not because everything is perfect, but because every voice has a message: the Christian message is “peace upon earth,” because God loves us!
Assignment for the Week
Appreciate yourself and treat yourself with utmost respect and dignity because you are a child of God and God identifies with you by taking flesh in Jesus Christ.
Life is God himself. It is a big message for us today as we celebrate the birth of Christ. Thanks Fr. Ayo for reminding us of this nature of God which is taken for granted always.