Second Sunday of Advent - Year B - 7th December 2008

Listen to the Voice that Speaks of Peace

"Peace to all people of good will" was the angels message at the first Christmas.

Today's psalm teaches that peace is God's gift and that our first duty is to listen to the voice of God and pray that He will give us lasting peace.

Nevertheless our human response is also important. We must prepare a way for the presence of the God who gives peace by rooting out all injustices, prejudices and cynicism from our lives. Pope Paul VI wrote "If you want peace, work for justice". Where there is injustice there can never be peace. Axe we ready to listen to the voices that speak of peace, even when the request comes from the most surprising people and places.

In October 2007 a group of senior Muslim leaders wrote a letter to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders. "Finding common ground between Muslims and Christians is not simply a polite ecumenical dialogue between selected religious leaders," the Muslims wrote. "Christianity and Islam ... together make up more than 55 percent of the world's population, making the relationship between these two religious communities the most important factor in contributing to meaningful peace around the world".

"If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace," they continued. "With the terrible weaponry of the modern world, with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world's inhabitants. Thus our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake."

The letter concludes, "So let our differences not cause hatred and strife between us. Let us vie with each other only in righteousness and good works. Let us respect each other, be fair, just and kind to another and live in sincere peace, harmony and mutual good will." (Al-Ma’idah, 5:48)

These are very heartening words and should encourage us to reach out to our Muslim neighbours and work for peace. They like us are seeking not merely a cessation of hostilities but peace in its purest sense — an experience of deep harmony with God, with others, within ourselves and with all of creation.

May their efforts encourage us to pray for peace and to do our part in promoting its realisation within our home, our country and the world.

Fr Kevin O'Shea, C.M.