An Unhurried Hallow: Peace

An Unhurried Hallow:  Peace

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I given you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
~John 14:27~

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages…
Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.”
~Pierre Teithard de Chardin, SJ~
Hearts on Fire:  Praying With the Jesuits

Like our first hope candle, the second Advent candle is also purple. It represents peace as Joseph and Mary journeyed to Bethlehem. I had a mere thirty-minute drive to the hospital when I was about to give birth to our first child; we arrived just in the nick of time. Mary’s journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was about 95 miles. To make this journey today by car would take two and a half hours. Assuming Mary and Joseph used a donkey, it would have taken them four days. As Mary was “great with child,” this does not render forth an image of first-class travel comfort.

But the imagery of peace as they proceeded on their long road is powerful. I can only imagine that peace encircling the perimeter of Mary’s heart as she pondered her pregnancy and upcoming birthing, and while there is actually no scriptural mention of Mary riding the donkey when they traveled to Bethlehem, let’s hope for Mary’s sake that Joseph was able to borrow one for his heavily pregnant wife.

The donkey, too, is symbolic of peace and meekness as opposed to a horse, which would suggest war and control, as well as being the animal of choice for a soldier, king, and conqueror. Jesus fulfills this prophecy of peace when we see him riding a humble donkey into Jerusalem thirty-three years later; perhaps there is a bit of foreshadowing as we picture the nativity scene prefaced by the slow arrival of Mary, great with child, riding on a donkey, as well.

“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey.”
~Zech. 9:9~

A central concept in Jewish culture, peace is best encapsulated in the word shalom. This is a greeting and farewell, a prayer and a blessing, a grace after a meal and before a journey. Shalom is completeness, soundness, welfare, the way things ought to be. It is the trust that the Jesuit prayer above refers to: being at peace with the process, in the process.

It was a shalom kind of peace that Mary breathed beginning at the conception of Jesus to the culmination of his birth in Bethlehem, and beyond. In the throes of Mary’s big belly and querulous questions, peace was within her; peace was complete, she trusted that things would work out the way they ought to work out.

Oh, but that we could emulate the same shalom peace amid the worrisome details, complications, and sorrows of this life. With His help, we can; after all, we too have Jesus within us, just as Mary did, in the shape of the Holy Spirit.

“Lord, you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.”
~Isaiah 26:12~