We are brought tidings of comfort and joy. We are promised salvation from a peril which is, however drawn from Jewish and other predecessors or transmitted to Islam and other successors, in precise terms only recognized by Christianity in the first place. I leave it to Christians, with my blessing (and heartfelt contrition regarding the relevant predecessors).

We are also promised peace, a much more nearly universal longing and concern. Leaving aside for the moment the question of purely human capacity to achieve a durable global peace (as opposed to divine capacity to provide) consider what a durable global peace means to you. What does it look like?

Users of the Hebrew word “shalom” and Arabic “salaam” are drawing on an idea well in which peace is not (or not only) rest or tranquility but wholeness, completion — including possibilities of integrity in self and integration with all else — perhaps providing a bridge to the other promise.

It has been said that who would have peace must pursue justice, and I concur. Still leaving aside the question of purely human capacity, if a durable global peace required justice — or at least a durably and globally understood pursuit of justice — what does that look like?

We live under conditions which are manifestly not peaceful, which are manifestly unjust, if not for all then certainly for many. (And, in truth, how peaceful is any peace, how just any justice, which leave anyone out?) We live under conditions which actively discourage many from taking time even to think in detail about what a better world might look like, let alone take steps toward it. For most of us, no divinity imposed these conditions; they are the work of humanity’s own words and hands.

This active discouragement is ironically strong at this time of each year. We are urged to celebrate either assertively without cause or only for a cause about which we cannot agree. Consider that we don’t have to agree about premises where our conclusions approach each other anyway. Consider that fewer and fewer are given much time even to celebrate, even this time of each year. Take some of the time you have to consider better. Do what you can. We forget, and must be reminded, but it is always good news: we have with us the means.

[Photo courtesy of Eric Bowers Photoblog]