Fr Jaroslaw Kurek OSB
‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will’.
The Saviour has been born for us, the Prince of Peace has come, peace that we all desire so much, peace we think of in a particular way today as we celebrate the World Day of Peace.
But as we learn from the Gloria, peace descends upon people of good will, or, in other words, people well pleasing to God.
What does it mean to be of good will, what might it be to be well pleasing to God?
How can I become such a person? Who can help me find this precious spiritual attitude?
Our beloved Mary, the Mother of the One who brings peace on earth, is I think the ideal example to follow for everyone who desires peace. Mary, who was pleasing to God, is well able to show us this path.
Let us look at her then, perhaps in a slightly different way, so that we may begin to learn this path.
According to our monastic tradition, Mary in her youth kept examining the Scriptures, she never tired of going through the events described in its pages. Unsurprisingly in today’s gospel we read these words in relation to Mary: ‘she treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart’.
Mary, following her lifelong practice, treasured all those things that took place around the birth of her son. She kept all those words and things close to her heart. But not only did she treasure these things, but she pondered them, performing a mysterious activity which I will call ‘making a jig-saw’. Let me explain. The Evangelist employs a powerful verb symballo, which indicates bringing things together, joining them, and even uniting them.
Think of the Bible as a big jig-saw. When you open the box, you get a lot of pieces that appear quite obscure, you only get a very general idea of the completed image when you look at the cover of the jig-saw. And so you start to put the pieces together. At the beginning it is not easy, but with patience you start to see more and more of the picture, as clarity emerges.
The same holds true when examining the events in the Bible. Everyone has the general gist. Now let’s assume you make up your mind to be like Mary, you want to be continuously investigating the pages of the scriptures. So first you ponder one paragraph, then another, one book, then another. If you are persistent, if you explore the scriptural texts day in, day out, in due course you will become like Mary, truly pleasing to God.
By our ardent attempts to thoroughly examine the events of Jesus’ life we will become a delight to God. As a result, our approach to reality and perception of it will be different, much deeper and truer, and we will be able to receive the gift of peace which comes from God.
Are we prepared to experience that peace, expressed in these powerful words that we will hear soon during this Mass: ‘Peace I give you, peace I leave you’, words that are somehow Jesus’ response to our petition: ‘Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from evil, graciously grant peace in our days’?
But that’s not all. Before Communion the monks will sing, ‘Agnus Dei, dona nobis pacem, Lamb of God, grant us peace’. When receiving the body of Christ, let us think of the incarnate God as a gift of divine peace for us.
On this World Day of Peace, may our communion begin to make peacemakers of us.
The Bible, ardently studied by Mary, suggests: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God’.
Bearing peace to the world around us, you and I will be called children of God, and thus Mary, Mother of God, will truly become our mother.