The time to be jolly, and the time of peace on Earth: it’s Christmas! What’s this all about then? Simply one thing: the ultimate benefit we are all looking for in this life, and which all benefits boil down to – peace of mind. That’s why, even commercially, companies give ‘peace of mind’ guarantees and warranties and so take – sometimes – the worry out of purchasing. Of course there is an irony in that at this time of year, the time of peace on Earth, that many people are going to purchase so much, and rack up so many bills that their peace of mind is assuredly not going to happen any time soon!
But what is this peace of mind that we all want? I think there are three distinct components of it that we may review.
The first is specifically relevant to Christmas in that it is what might be termed a spiritual peace of mind. In the Western tradition this is clearly to do with alienation from God and what is sometimes called ‘sin’; however, I think it would be a mistake to think of this as something peculiarly Western and only relevant to patriarchal notions of an angry God. That would be to miss the point of all the world religions; for basically they all exist – including Buddhism – to solve a central dilemma that humans beings have recognised from the beginning. Namely, that human life is imperfect and that we need some system to get us back into balance and into a right relationship with the universe. There is alongside this a general understanding that at the start of history, human beings were involved in some aboriginal error that contributed to their misery. Pandora, if you will, opened the box and we all ever since have struggled to find … peace of mind. The question, then, is: how do we get back to God? Christmas is one, but not the only answer.
The second component of creating peace of mind is to do with our neighbours and our relationship with them. Clearly, it is difficult to have peace of mind if we are always quarrelling with them, be they our immediate family and friends, our next door neighbours, our fellow citizens, or indeed that country across the way that seems belligerent and hostile to us. How do we create a right relationship with our neighbours? Planning to harm them isn’t going to work, and neither is building an arsenal of weaponry in case they strike first. We have seen all this before – most spectacularly in the years prior to World War One – and it does not work. Why can’t we learn the lessons of history and try another way? Who is our neighbour, asked Christ? And then pinpointed what needed to happen: we help them. In that is peace of mind.
Finally, and perhaps most difficult of all, the third component of peace of mind requires us to make peace with our self; for the reality is that most people have a FAG addiction that is worse than nicotine. By which I mean they are prey to one at least of three acute emotional dysfunctions: Fear, Anger, and Guilt. People too frightened to step out of their houses or to be intimate with others; people always angry with anybody else over anything, no matter how trivial; and people always beating themselves up about what they did or how they should feel now. How they live in constant turmoil and peace of mind a million miles away and inaccessible.
But it is Christmas. Whether we are Christians or not, let us remember the baby and all babies, and how – until they are ruined by adults – they want to laugh and play and enjoy life, how they want to trust and be nourished, how they hope in their inarticulate way for growth and the future. To be childlike is not to be childish; indeed, it is to replenish our inner strengths and reserves, and especially to receive the gift of peace as we feel the joy of life.
Happy Christmas to my readers!
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