Peace on earth. The church has been celebrating this sentiment for a whole season, and in fact the assembly declares it every time it proclaims the Gloria: On earth, peace to people of good will! But how do you track these people down? Maybe the trouble locating them is one reason you do not see much peace on earth, no matter how often you sing of it.

The news often reports the doings of people of bad will. Wars and acts of terror, murder and violence, petty theft and corporate crime, injustice, prejudice, and unkindness of every sort—the world can seem like a pretty bad place to live, and unfortunately you have no alternatives. Still, people of faith sing of peace, preach and teach it, hold out the hope of it to people of good will, and Jesus promises a peace that passes understanding to those same good-willing folks. You and I can know that peace, if we join our will to the divine will and seek the good above every other thing.

So start off the new calendar year with a blessing: for your families, over your homes and places of business, over your parish and neighborhoods, and over your nation as a whole. Let’s pray for peace—and for people of good will—because the world will only have peace when you become one of those people. Let’s seek goodness ourselves and join with others who profess and demonstrate that same desire, because peace isn’t an impossible dream for the world. God created you for unity and harmony, Jesus prays for your unity in the sharing of his Body and Blood, and Saint Paul declares the hidden unity of humanity is what the mystery of Christ is meant to reveal. There is no male or female, no east or west, in Christ. There’s only the human family waiting to be awakened to its true identity as God’s children.

That is the message of Isaiah, the great prophet of universal harmony. His dream of the peaceable kingdom where lion and lamb lie down together, where nations come together under the same God, seemed unreasonable to his own community. It sounds crazy to a lot of people today, too. You live on Planet Babel where borders and boundaries and languages and religions are legion. We’re divided into rich and poor, haves and have nots. We’re raised to mistrust, fear, even hate the other. Every once in a while, however, somebody forgets the rules and crosses the lines with great courage and resolve, like those magi of good will who go looking for some Jewish king. We call them wise. They value signs from heaven more than earthly treasure. Pledge this year to join them on that quest.
 

Related scripture links

Queen of Sheba: 1 Kings 10:1-13; 2 Chron. 9:1-12

Catechism links

Epiphany: CCC 486; 528; 724