Luke 3:1-6; Philippians 1:3-22; Malachi 3:1-4

          In today’s reading, the writer of the gospel according to Luke is quoting Isaiah 40:3 and 4. In these verses Isaiah is prophesying the end of the Babylonian captivity and what he describes is God directly participating in Israel’s return to Jerusalem after seventy years of captivity.

God was going to fill those valleys between Babylon and Jerusalem and the mountains and hills he was going to make low, the crooked roads straight, and the rough ways made smooth just so His chosen ones would have an easy path back to Jerusalem. In other words what the prophets is preaching to those in exile is: God will remove all the obstacles preventing Israel to return home; God will make your way easy.

          Today we celebrate the second Sunday of Advent; we are celebrating Peace. Paul in Ephesians 2:14 reminds us that Jesus is our Shalom, our peace. Isaiah 9:6 describes the Messiah as the Sar Shalom, Prince of Peace. To understand better what kind of peace we are celebrating today, we have to see the difference between peace as we understand+ it and what Isaiah and Paul means by shalom.

The word peace used in English, comes from the Latin word “pax.” The Merriam- Webster Dictionary defined Peace as: freedom from civil disturbance, a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom and a state or period in which there is no war, or a war has ended.

Pax to the Romans and to us means a cessation of hostilities between the conqueror and the conquered. This peace is provided by a law or custom imposed by the winners. Therefore, is always temporary because it depended on who is in the position of strength. On the other hand, the Hebrew word we translate as peace is Shalom. This is an ancient Hebrew concept and means more than cessation of hostilities. It means wholeness, completeness, soundness, health, safety, and prosperity. Contrary to our concept of peace this always carries with it the implication of permanence.

Rabbi Robert I. Kahn of Houston, Texas, explains the difference between Peace as we know it and the concept of Shalom this way:

“One can dictate a peace; shalom is a mutual agreement. “Peace is a temporary pact; shalom is a permanent agreement. “One can make a peace treaty; shalom is the condition of peace.
“Peace can be negative, the absence of commotion. Shalom is positive, the presence of serenity.
“Peace can be partial; shalom is whole. “Peace can be piecemeal; shalom is complete.” 

          Today we celebrate shalom, we celebrate Jesus as our shalom. He -as the prophet Isaiah describes- came to remove all the obstacles that separated man and God. The core obstacle was sin, but Jesus with His blood, with His suffering, death and resurrection made that mountain low, filled that valley and made our salvation, our return to our father easier.

Jesus’ Shalom is whole involves God and our neighbors. Ephesians 2:14 “For he himself is our Shalom, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” Isaiah 11 describes this Shalom among God’s creation. “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

What I really love about this text is that the Prophet’s Messianic vision has nothing to do with being the same or thinking the same. He does not foresee a world in which we are all uniformed. Indeed, precisely the opposite. Isaiah envisioned a world in which opposites live together side by side, a world where natural enemies inhabit the same space, and all these is possible because the “knowledge of the Lord” brings people together in peace.

The Messianic vision of Isaiah should encourage us to think more deeply about what Peace our world is trying to obtain and how we are trying to obtain and to remember that we don’t have to change other people in order to live peacefully with them. If the wolf can live with the lamb, if the leopard can lie down with the kid, then human beings of different persuasions can live together in peace. That’s the Shalom Jesus came to bring; that is the Shalom we celebrate today.

          Our ministry as followers of Jesus is the same as John the Baptist, we must prepare the way of the Lord. We have to bring peace between God and men by sharing the knowledge of God with those who do not know it; we have to bring God’s Shalom to God’s creation by removing the obstacles preventing God’s shalom and by proclaiming that if the wolf can live with the lamb, if the leopard can lie down with the kid, then human beings of different persuasions can live together in peace.  

However, we cannot accomplish it if we do not have God’s Shalom in our hearts and our minds. Jesus said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” During this time of year when Christians are called to reflect on the coming of the Prince of Peace. It does us well to remember the passage in Luke where the angels and the heavenly assembly sing, “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors” (2:14).

          I would like to invite you to end my meditation today by join me in one of the most meaningful prayers. Saint Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.