The angels’ song for the Prince of Peace

By David Gibson

Did you ever hear a sound in the night that startled you from sleep, an unsettling sound that left you wide awake and demanded that you investigate its cause? The Gospel of Luke tells of a nighttime disturbance similar to this (2:8-14).

It startled shepherds “keeping the night watch over their flock” some 2,000 years ago in the Holy Land. “Behold,” a voice called out to them.

Luke indicates that what happened in the night really frightened the shepherds at first. It captured their complete attention, of course.

But it was an angel who spoke to them, saying, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news” — joyful news for all — that today “a savior has been born for you.” The angel revealed where the shepherds should look for this newborn child, “lying in a manger.”

Surely the shepherds knew then and there that they would not sleep that night! Instead, they would make their way to the place described to them. First, however, “a multitude of the heavenly host” joined their angel.

All these heavenly visitors were “praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.'”

Pope Francis calls this “the song of the angels.” It is, he comments, “a song that unites heaven and earth.”

Boys dressed as herders prepare to march along the streets in Tbilisi, Georgia, during a 2008 religious procession to celebrate Christmas. The Gospel of Luke tells the story of shepherds “keeping the night watch over their flock” some 2,000 years ago in the Holy Land, only to be startled by an angel who revealed to them the joyful news that “a savior has been born for you.” (CNS photo/Gleb Garanich, Reuters)

On his first Christmas as pope, he asked everyone to join in this little song. He called it “a song for every man or woman who keeps watch through the night, who hopes for a better world, who cares for others while humbly seeking to do his or her duty.”

The song of the angels gives “praise and glory to heaven,” while at the same time promising “peace to earth and all its people,” said Pope Francis.

Indeed, it is a song of peace.

The shepherds of Luke’s Gospel must have been awestruck by all that they heard and saw in the night. “Behold” an angel said to them, and quite soon they beheld an infant named Jesus.

His birth was destined down through the ages to call to mind the words of the Old Testament prophet about a child “born to us” who was titled “Wonder-Counselor” and “Prince of Peace,” a prince whose vast rule is “forever peaceful” (Is 9:5-6).

Jesus’ birth always is recalled among Christians as an awe-inspiring event of astounding beauty — an event to behold and to celebrate jubilantly.

Yet, attaching the title “Prince of Peace” to him assures that in celebrating his birth Christians always will ponder his peacemaking mission in our world, which becomes a commission to his followers, as well.

“God is peace: Let us ask him to help us to be peacemakers each day — in our life, in our families, in our cities and nations, in the whole world. Let us allow ourselves to be moved by God’s goodness,” Pope Francis urged on Christmas 2013.

Today, peacemaking is threaded into the very fabric of the church’s celebration of the Christmas season.

There are wonders to behold and quietly to treasure every year at the time of Christmas. Yet, every wonder of faith is like a two-sided coin. Its reverse side calls believers into action.

So, Christmas is a call to make peace, to give birth to reconciliations of all kinds in marriages and families, in neighborhoods, within a single nation and among nations. This is why the prayer of the church at Christmas so often is a prayer for peace.

In “The Joy of the Gospel,” his 2013 apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis stressed that “by preaching Jesus Christ, who is himself peace,” the church calls upon “every baptized person to be a peacemaker and a credible witness to a reconciled life” (No. 239).

In the mind of Pope Francis, a lack of human dialogue harms peace greatly. But isn’t that another way of stating that the willingness to hear others, to lend time to them by listening with interest and respect to their voices, holds a vital place among the building blocks of peace?

Indifference toward others also harms peace profoundly, Pope Francis makes clear. But he believes that “cold indifference” can be “won over by the warmth of mercy,” a “gift of God that turns fear into love and makes us artisans of peace.”

The song of the angels promises peace on earth. But, the reality is that peace seemingly breaks down with ease in this world. Conflict takes over and people lose sight of the rightful place of justice and love in human existence.

Still, as Pope Francis has said, Christmas means that “God is with us” — with the real us — “in this real world, which is marked by so many things both good and bad.”

Christmas celebrates “the birth of a vulnerable child” called “the Prince of Peace,” Pope Francis points out. This is the incarnate Lord, who “shows us the real face of God, for whom power does not mean force or destruction but love” and mercy.

Gibson served on Catholic News Service’s editorial staff for 37 years.

Author: Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ news and information service.

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