Many of us desire this peace. Sadly, it is elusive in today’s world. Senseless suffering and pain and unnecessary deaths scar daily life. Droughts and earthquakes, wars and terrorist attacks, economic woes and job losses mean an uncertain future for so many. All these dim the brightness we long for. At home and at work, disagreements and misunderstandings, petty jealousies and a fearful rejection of our love and care further diminish this light.

Within ourselves, anxiety and disquiet reign as we struggle to reconcile the tensions in life. At these times, we feel we are being tossed about in life’s turbulent waters. There is no peace. It seems impossible to have.

Yet the Advent readings and hymns assure us, as they invite us to remember, the One who can give us true peace, Jesus.

Jesus is God’s gift of peace. Indeed, this grown up babe will say to us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” And what is this rest but the peace that our wearied, searching hearts will find in the Lord, as St Augustine reminds us.

On Christmas morn, we will find ourselves drawn to the manger. Many reasons move us to it. Perhaps, one is our yearning to look upon the serene face of Jesus, Prince of Peace, and in this moment, experience and know true peace.

And if we smile at Jesus then, we smile because we have a sense that all the contraries of human life find their reconciliation in him. They become one, and, in so doing, they express the fullness of humanity: the finite and infinite, the human and the divine, the lowly and the almighty.

I’d like to believe the shepherds smiled at Jesus too because they saw the invisible made visible. For there, in the manger, the almighty God laid, born one like us, fragile, small and innocent. What is this scene but the poverty of human existence transfigured for us to celebrate the richness of human life Jesus shows us it can be as God’s children.

Isaiah spoke of a people in darkness long pinning for God. They saw it in the radiance of the Christ Child. There was no longer fear and uncertainty; they found joy and assurance. Indeed, the impossible became possible that Christmas morn – for God was not apart but God is with us, now and always. Simeon celebrated this truth at the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. His was a joyful confession of one human heart to which Peace came and wherein it rested always.

Let us pray to have the eyes of Simeon this Christmas: may we recognize the Christ Child who is in our midst and who brings peace, peace on earth for you and me, and all people of goodwill.