‘Prince of Peace’  at Christmas…!

Speaking about the Birth of Jesus hundreds of years before it happened, Prophet Isaiah announced, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, ‘Prince of Peace’ ” (Prophet Isaiah 9:6). 

Jesus Christ is the ‘Prince of Peace’ in its fullest sense, born at the time of Pax Romana in the Roman Empire, yet the kind of peace He brings is not necessarily what most of us are thinking of when we hear of peace.

Today, more than ever before, people struggle against other people. There are family conflicts and conflicts with co-workers and sometimes even conflicts with total strangers. Crime, racism, discrimination, dissension, abuse, and violence are everyday occurrences. Divorce rates show the conflict between husbands and wives. During this season of ‘Peace and Goodwill’ too, individuals often disappoint each other and fail to meet expectations. Family conflicts at the drop of a hat are often heightened as people who may not otherwise spend a lot of time together are suddenly at close quarters. Even total strangers may lock horns with each other as they compete for limited number of things available in supermarkets, food stores, one-stop-shops etc., or the most convenient parking spots at different overcrowded places. Fights during the season have been known to occur over trifles. This shopping season tends to elevate criminal activity from shoplifting to burglary demonstrating the great need for ‘Interpersonal Peace’.

On the other hand, what peace probably means to some others is ‘International Peace’. Currently, conflicts rage around the entire globe and war is commonplace. There is also the constant threat of international terrorism. The very place of Jesus Christ’s Birth is one of the least peaceful of all the places on earth, and even the very city of Bethlehem has been torn by numerous riots again and again between various factions.

By all these, according to His Holiness Pope Francis: “In the garden of humanity, instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing, instead with fire, missiles and bombs, weapons that bring sorrow and death, covering our common home with ashes and hatred.”

While the need for interpersonal peace and international peace might be recognized by most of us, there is one other kind of peace that seldom captures our attention! Yet this type of peace is our most pressing need today. That is none other than the great need for peace with our own selves in the form of ‘Inner Peace’, which is the wellspring of all other forms of peace we can talk of!

The Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in His Grace’s book, ‘Peace of Soul’ argues that there can be no world peace until there is peace of soul. The book refers to war and other social ills as projections of the inner conflicts within individual persons.

Speaking from a psychological point of view, don’t we often find ourselves thinking non-stop? Don’t we sometimes feel that our mind is going to explode from thoughts that don’t stop at least for one moment? Aren’t we wishing sometimes that our mind could just stop thinking for a little while, and make us enjoy some rest and peace?  
Human life on earth is usually filled with tension, strain, rush and pressure at work and at home. This sorry state of affairs makes the mind even more restless and attracts more thoughts into the mind. Problems, difficulties, fears, worries and hurt feelings increase the mental restlessness and lack of inner peace. At these times, we become acutely aware of the lack of inner peace and the need for some silence.  

At such times, we feel like screaming at our minds to stop. We feel the lack of inner peace inside us and wish we could stop the mind for just a little while. It is like being helpless in a rudderless boat in the midst of the mighty ocean! Therefore, we can undoubtedly enjoy a state of inner peace by teaching our minds to be silent so that all the worries, fears and thoughts just go away, and we feel calm, happy and free again. 

As we know, there are no shortcuts to anything worthwhile and so is the case of overcoming a lack of inner peace. Here the aim is to gain the increased ability and build up the skill to handle efficiently and peacefully the daily affairs of life in such a way that your being in a crisis becomes also the measure that you give it away!  

This will not happen overnight! In order to silence our mind at will and shut down its incessant thinking and enjoy inner peace, we need some mental and emotional practice emanating from a sound training. It follows as a result of developing a certain degree of letting go to gain mastery over one’s mind.  

This mastery over one’s mind is the lesson to be learnt from the ‘Silent Night’ amidst the hustle and bustle of a busy night flooded with massive crowds even to the extent that the inn also becomes house full.  The true spirit of Christmas surely invites all of us to keep our mind not as a dustbin to keep anger, hatred and jealousy, but as a treasure box to keep love, happiness and sweet memories!

Thus, we may be able to make the desert land within us bloom with inner peace which is a Christmas gift from the ‘Prince of Peace’!