Lonely Exile: A Daily Advent Devotional

Part Eight: Disturbing the Peace

“Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is generosity.
It is right and it is duty.”
— Oscar Romero

Read: Luke 1:46-55

When we think of peace we probably also think of words or states of being that are calm, tranquil, quiet, still, or undisturbed. We also probably think about Christmas, a time when we talk and sing a lot about peace on earth. That’s why, if we pay close attention to the Christmas stories in both Matthew and Luke, we might be surprised to find none of those things mentioned in the story.

Take, for example, a little song called a canticle that appears in Luke chapter one.¹ There are four of them in Luke’s Nativity story, but the one that comes to mind is the one attributed to Mary, the soon-to-be mother of Jesus, just after she discovered her pregnancy. While visiting her relative Elizabeth, Mary burst into a song called The Magnificat. Named for the first few words of the song in Latin, it is Mary’s response to Elizabeth’s celebration of the child she will bring into the world. And, we should note, that the Mary of this song is not the very cutesy, very mindful, very demure Mary we are accustomed to in most portrayals. She is fierce, and she understands that she is playing a role in what would be a world-changing experience. Hear these words in particular:

[God] has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
[God] has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
[God] has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty. Luke 1:51b-53

Mary understood something that we too often miss: Sometimes what passes for peace isn’t peace, but just an upholding of the status quo. Peace does not, can not, exist in the absence of justice. Any peace that is proclaimed while people are hungry, unhoused, and unable to access adequate healthcare, to name just a few of our challenges, is not a real peace. Maintaining the status quo isn’t real peacemaking.

The truth is that, before peace is comfort and calm, it often looks like a disruption of the status quo that masquerades as peace. Peacemaking—the nonviolent working for a just and equitable world—looks like troublemaking to those who benefit from the way things currently function. And, peacemakers, like Jesus, Gandhi, and Dr. King, are often accused of being disturbers of the peace. However, it is not the peace being disrupted; it is the status quo.

Perhaps the Prayer of Saint Francis is familiar to you. It begins, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace…” It is a beautiful, meaningful prayer for so many. There is another prayer (one for which I just can’t find the original source) that I recently stumbled upon, and that speaks to the importance of disturbance as a key part of peacemaking.

Lord, make me a channel of your DISTURBANCE
Where there is apathy, let me provoke;
Where there is compliance, let me bring questioning.
Where there is silence, may I be a voice.
Where there is too much comfort and too little action, grant disruption.
Where there are doors closed and hearts locked, grant the willingness to listen.
When laws dictate and pain is overlooked; when tradition speaks louder than need; grant that I may seek rather to do justice than to talk about it.
Disturb us, O Lord, to be with, as well as for, the alienated; to love the unlovable as well as the lovely;
Lord, make me a channel of disturbance.

Maybe this could be a meaningful, centering prayer for all of us in the days in which we find ourselves. Advent is about a real, lasting, transformative peace on earth, a peace for earth. May we commit ourselves to this disruptive work, in this season and always.

Questions for Reflection:

How do you feel about disturbance as part of peacemaking?
Have you experienced this in your own life?
How are you being invited to join the disruptive work of peacemaking?

1. Canticle comes from the Latin word canticum which means “little song.”