During the Civil War, guns were heard in our city streets. Brothers and fathers died in our towns. Disease abounded (Washington made his men get vaccinated!). People died fighting in a Civil War that made no sense. Does War make sense? Christmas came… Henry Wadsworth Longfellow heard the bells and wrote a poem… As he wrote … he bowed his head in pain…
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
The words of the poem are a statement of faith that we cannot live without. On Monday night I gave a talk at church on the 4 last things. The first of the 4 is death. We are all facing death that is followed by meetings with Christ and the review of the "choices" we made in life. What follows our meeting with Christ is Heaven or the cleansing of Purgatory then Heaven. Or Hell if we totally rejected God. … The last thing is Final Judgment. We have been taught that Christ is merciful. He wants us to have faith and join him in the "Afterlife." When I despair that life stinks because people fight and say awful things. Because people hate. Because people kill. Because 15 year old boys pick up their father’s automatic weapons and go to school… When I despair…. If I dwell on this and call it reality, then I can descend into darkness. Matthew Arnold gazed at the Dover channel and wrote.. in "Dover Beach" that "The Sea is calm tonight," but the end is awful as he describes a beast slouching to Bethlehem to be born. WWI was on the horizon and Englanders knew that.
Let us spend some time in church. A lot of time in church… Even just sitting quietly and not saying anything can help us get closer to our Creator God. He wouldn’t have done all this beautiful work (flowers, clouds, small birds, puppies, babies) if he didn’t mean for us to enjoy them. If he didn’t mean for us to protect his creation. Let us lift our heads. Let us ring bells and light lights. My house is decorated and the yard sports lights and we cleaned up the weeds! Come to a house that embraces Joy! Come to my "Circle of Joy!" Let mine be a house that embraces Hope. God bless us and keep us safe in a world that seems to be crumbling. Let us listem to the still small voice of God and let us shout "Peace on Earth, Good will toward Men!!!" God bless us.