Peace

"A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all the people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken'" (Isaiah 40:3-5).

Advent is a time of peace -- a time to find it, or make it, inside ourselves as well as in the world. It seems somehow less daunting to try and impose peace on the spaces around us: streamlining our possessions, reducing the clutter of our things, turning down the noise. Outer conditions of calm, quiet and austerity do help foster inner peace, as any Christian religious order in history could tell you. The kind of exterior life we live has an effect on the inner life of the soul. So the monastery is free from clutter and full of silence. It is structured by obedience and simplicity, allowing the mind to be freed for the discipline of inner silence.

One does not have to go to a monastery to find these conditions. But it's always necessary to carve that space out for ourselves somehow, or our souls will forever be turbulent and disquieted, caught up in the things and excesses of this world. Self-discipline is an important part of Advent as we foster a sense of quiet waiting in our lives. We are called to patience, to endure the wait with an anticipation that does not make itself busy standing still or trying to rush through it all.

But this type of outer silence is not the most challenging facet of finding peace. Music can easily be turned off, and solitude can almost always be found. It isn't enough just to manipulate the word around us by refusing to buy anything or put up the Christmas tree. Peace is fundamentally nurtured from within.

Peace comes from opening up the mind to let God in. Like a ray of light, God cannot inflame our minds if they're tangled up with all sorts of branches: the light gets stuck and lost in the dense forest, never reaching out to warm our skin.

Maybe God can't come in because we're so preoccupied with worry. Maybe God can't come in because we don't have time to listen. Whatever the reason we give for why the light doesn't shine, in the end God cannot come in where the soul does not want to receive Him.

We find many reasons within ourselves for our unworthiness, and to cover it up with excuses. We're afraid of what it would mean to truly encounter God. We're afraid it will burn. We're afraid of the truth of our own sin and the reality of Who God is, and what that could mean for us. The encounter with God is not an easy one, though He is Goodness. Even though Advent is not a penitential season, we do have to make room in our hearts by repenting of our sins and letting go the burdens they place upon us. The heaviness of it, the fear of God because of it, keeps us from experiencing the peace this season is all about -- the peace that only God can give.

We are called by the same voice as Isaiah to make our paths straight, and in the wilderness of our souls to prepare the way of the Lord. Then we shall see the glory of God and find peace as He remakes our lives, changing everything.

"Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts" (Psalm 85:8).