I am haunted by the story from the First World War when, on Christmas Eve, British and German soldiers left their trenches to meet in No Man’s Land to exchange greetings, food and cigarettes.
There is such a yearning for peace and reconciliation in the human heart that it will show forth in the most extraordinary circumstances.
As we prepare for the coming of the Prince of Peace, what I want for Christmas is for love and hope to conquer fear and violence a little more often with each passing year.
When will we ever learn that we gain more by cooperating with each other than by competition?
As I write this I am conscious that I am being very naive. But doesn’t the Nativity give us the right to a little optimism?
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I don’t think that your desire for “love and hope to conquer fear and violence” is naive. St. Paul told the Philippians (4:13): “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” and Jesus said (Matthew 19:26) “…with God all things are possible”. God calls us to dream great dreams and to put our trust in God that God’s will will be done here on earth and then to do whatever we can to make it happen.
Lynda,
Thank you. I needed that.
Paul
I came across the tune and lyrics of this song today popularized by Amy Grant. It struck me to the core of my being because even if it is not worded the same way, these are some of the petitions that I bring to prayer everyday during Laud (LOH), for it expresses the longing that I present to God. Am I being naive for having such an optimistic view that God will answer my prayer, and that he holds the key to “oneness” in this chaotic world? I am not being naive. I firmly believe in God.
Grown–Ups Christmas List
(Amy Grant)
Do you remember me
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you with childhood fantasies
Well I’m all grown-up now
And still need help somehow
I’m not a child
But my heart still can dream
So here’s my lifelong wish
My grown-up Christmas list
Not for myself
But for a world in need
[Chorus:]\
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown-up Christmas list
As children we believed
The grandest sight to see
Was something lovely
Wrapped beneath our tree
Well heaven surely knows
That packages and bows
Can never heal a hurting human soul.
(Chorus)
Fr. Paul, I apologize for being wordy, but this is really the version sang by Filipino artists that affected me so greatly today. God did not whisper; I heard him lous and clear!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O2R9VJiQKmE#!
Dolly,
You’re right, it’s a wonderful song.
Paul
This is a song that touched me when I first heard it years ago and continues to echo in me each Christmas season. If we worked for that sort of list, love and hope win.
Dolly,
No need to apologize! When I finish responding to the comments here, I will listen to the song. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Paul
Being hopeful and having faith is not naivety. With faith, we acknowledge the disorder in this world, then boldly walk out to meet it knowing that Christ walks with us and that it is He working through us that takes that which is twisted and straightens it. Believing in possibilities isn’t naive, that’s faith!
So True!
Emma,
I think you can do my job better than I can. Want to take over?
Paul
It was you who first taught me. The most influential thing that you ever said to me echoed back in the letter inserted in the calendar. You were the first person who ever asked me to pray for them. I thought you were a little daft, to put it mildly. I thought “He’s the priest, what tho heck is he asking me to pray for him for? ” That simple request empowered me. Until that time, I’d had more than one tell me that they would “pray for me ” .I suppose most were well intended, but their offers always left me in a mindset that “They were somehow more worthy and I the outsider”. When you asked me to pray for you, you led me in a direction I’d never considered. That as messed up as I was, God listened to me too! BTW…I never stopped praying for you.
I agree with Emma, people always want to fluff hope off as naivete. Hope is a useful and necessary stance. If we don’t hope when all seems hope-less than what does that say about our faith? I think too often we listen to the interpretations of the world instead of to our own hearts which points us in the direction of God. People have considered me naive because I speak in a voice of hope, let them, it allows me to stay open to God working the world. I believe in being a “co-creator” and I believe in Emmanuel which is why I always hope. I am with you in your prayer that each day bring more cooperation and less violence.
Annette,
Okay, I guess I’ve needed all of your (plural) gentle remonstrations to remind me of the importance of hope. It’s just been tough recently.
Paul
Paul,
I was down yesterday too, quite. Reading your post helped me reorient my own thoughts, you did me a good deed.
No Paul, you are not being naive, remember what a well known Brit once said…You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.
We must always have hope…
Tim,
But, yes, as you say, he was a Brit!
Paul
I love that image – taking a break from war. We don’t know how to do that now, do we? Not to ever glorify war, but warfare once had different standards, such as that one. Now – someone sits in a cube, operating sophisticated technology which kills others half a world away. Whoooshhhh…. Horrifying wonder.
This also reminds me of the story of St. Francis, tramping across a desert of dead and decaying bodies, in the midst of a crusade in Damietta, Egypt, to meet the Sultan, to speak of peace.
Hope fuels such meetings and in them we are all changed. And we all have them in us, if we choose to find, access and act upon them – in hope.
Fran,
What amazes me is that later they got back into their trenches and tried to kill one another.
Paul
I think about hope like being a parent. If their honest every parent knows their child’s weaknesses but we also know their strengths which they can sometimes be so good at hiding from the world. Having hope is about working to reveal the goodness that already exists and trying to make the most of it. ( wait isn’t that part of what bringing about the kindgdom of God is all about too? )
Maura,
You and the others are really taking me to school about hope, aren’t you? Thank you.
Paul
I join my prayers to yours and wish Peace for Christmas and forever after…
Claire,
“Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
Paul
Everything great and good to spring up in human history was sown by people too naive to know such a thing could never happen.
Jim,
Yes! Yes! Yes! A great reminder.
Paul
I love this quote from Will Rogers : “They said it couldn’t be done, but the darn fool went and did it anyways! ”
Emma,
I also love the one from the Dalai Lama which goes something like, “If you think an individual can’t achieve much, think about what a single mosquite in your bedroom can do.”
Paul
That is one of my favorites!
Not much to add to the wisdom above. If my hope that God is at work in the world, that peace is possible, and that love is so much more powerful and attractive and real than hate, that it cannot but win in the end means I am naive -okay. I’ve been called worse
It’s so much better than any alternative I can come up with
Peace
Denise
This seems a good place to say a huge ‘Thank you!” for the calendar that has just arrived in my mailbox. It is just absolutely beautiful, the photos and the quotes. I will be placing it in a very obvious place, and look forward to the arrival of 2013 so I can use it. Margaret
You are not naive. I think a persistent problem that all of us face (in democracies anyway) is that that politicians are not paid to make good policy, but rather to be re-elected. As a result they spend most of their time trying to make the electorate fearful (you are only safe if you follow my lead etc) and that fear encourages competition rather than cooperation. Until we change the way that we choose our leaders we will continue to make irrational choices and the creep towards cooperation will be depressingly slow.