A Peace That Incarnates

Moving Beyond Temporary Peace to Embodied Peace

On our ideological battleground in the United States this holiday season, we are deeply entrenched, fighting to make our country more equitable, more just, more fair, and more free. But we will soon come out of our trenches and temporarily cease fighting in order to sing a few carols, exchange some gifts, and gather around the table for small talk and games in the name of Christmas tradition. And like those before us, we will return to our fighting unchanged, no closer to ”peace on earth” or “goodwill toward all men” than we were the day before our festivities began.

Rohr says that, “The virgin birth of Jesus is very good theological symbolism, but unless it translates into a spirituality of interior poverty, readiness to conceive, and human vulnerability, it is largely a ‘mere lesson memorized.”

I might even humbly add that it is “just a mere holiday celebrated.”

That is the great irony of the Incarnation. We temporarily gather to celebrate something we have no intention of becoming ourselves. We prefer the outer decoration to our inner transformation, annual tradition to an entirely new way of living and relating to others.

But the Incarnation tells a much different story. From within the darkness of the world’s womb, a new conception of life is gestating and coming to life.

First with the Christ-child and then within us.

If we want a world no longer shackled by the imbalances, inequities, and injustices of classism, racism, and materialism, it only truly begins to change with a spiritual people of interior poverty in whom God has made his humble dwelling place. If we want a world no longer beholden and addicted to politics and power structures, it only changes when we are ready to conceive something new within us. If we want a world in which we finally lay down our instruments of war, whether they be our words or weapons, it only begins when the peace we celebrate becomes the peace that incarnates.

That is when our hearts will soften. When our animosities will give way to forgiveness. When our words will no longer be weapons but salve. When our hands will no longer strike our enemy but break bread with him at our table. When all of our venom and vitriol and vindictiveness is at last vanquished by love.

That is a holiday we should celebrate together.

This Christmas may I not simply call you to a truce of temporary peace. Instead, I implore you to become that peace so we may all live in peace together.

Peace,

Brandon