Deep and Lasting Peace, used with permission from Father Michael Joncas
Christmas, 2020 “Deep and Lasting Peace” Mike Joncas
PEACE…it is the largest word on our Christmas Card. Peace takes the most space in our Webster Unabridged Dictionary. It takes three quarters of a column of small print to spell out all the aspects of peace. Likewise our large map of the world covers a third of the wall space in one of our office/work rooms. But peace is larger than the globe, and worthy of space on our Christmas card, peace circling the planet at this time of year, with a pandemic ragging over our world.
Peace we send to you our friends, that you might distribute it to all you know. And distribute it we can. Thanks to Zoom we can arrive at everyone’s table. And if our computer is down, we can put on a mask and knock on our neighbor’s door, keeping, of course, social distancing.
By email we received an invitation to celebrate Los Posadas with friends across the country via Zoom. This Christmas enactment of the Los Posadas is among one of the most heartfelt folk traditions in our hemisphere. It commemorates the journey of Mary and Joseph to find a safe refuge where Mary can give birth to the baby Jesus. You notice the small figures at the bottom of our Christmas card: Mary is seated on the donkey, led by Joseph searching out a place for the Child to be born.
Let the Child be born in us this Christmas, wherever and however, with tenderness and care, and above all in peace, gentle peace.
