Monday of the First Week of Advent
Today’s first reading speaks of a time which seems to be very distant in the future:
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
The condition of this time of peace comes upon the condition that nations reside in the Mountain of the Lord’s house. The image of a united people only occurs when there is a common understanding of a universal law given by God. Perhaps the original violence came when Adam and Eve rejected the will of God and turned to their own self will. It is for this reason that Mary, the new Eve, inaugurates the Kingdom of Christ with her response of yes to the will of God. Perhaps the reversing of the violence comes in imitation of Mary and the “yes” of Mary can be done in our own lives as well. Every time we reject selfishness, cruelty, unmerited advancement, and exaltation of the self over others, we turn a hammer to a plow and work to make God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.