Fourth Sunday of Advent
“He shall be peace.” (Malachi 5:4) With these words the prophet sums up the person of the Messiah who is promised to the people who await His coming. There are many things which God promises about the Messiah through the prophets; prophecies which we have heard proclaimed throughout Advent. The characteristics of his birth, his maturing, and again and again what the Messiah will do for His people and indeed for the whole of creation. And today, the prophecy we hear goes even further. Malachi tells us who the Messiah is: “He shall be peace.”
Peace incarnate. Certainly in a world with so many conflicts between nations, between peoples, with tensions of so many kinds seeping into families and friendships, certainly in such a world there is a desperate need for peace. Certainly there is a desperate need for such a Messiah. Yet, what will open my heart to realize my need for this peace? What will open my eyes to see Christ as the one whom I desire and the one whose coming will give me joy in the place of longing?
Today, in the few days remaining before Christmas, let us take a moment of silence to lift our unsettled hearts and lives and world up to the Lord. In silence, perhaps also in the sacrament of confession, let us offer our arguments and battles and angers and grudges to the Messiah who has been promised us, to Peace incarnate. Let us ask for the grace to watch eagerly for His coming, so that he may receive us, that He may receive all our need for Him, and that we may receive this One who so desires to give us His peace.