And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:13-14
“These divine words, these praises of the Lord, these angelic shouts, let’s give them a thorough going-over…Life “in the highest”? That’s where the kingdom of the living is. Where the Lord Himself is, there the good times are. Yes, we can dawdle there – no shortage of time there. Yes, we want the good times in Heaven, but we’d rather devote our energies to the good times on earth…Humankind has the worst excuses…What to do?
Demand your good will come to its senses about its concupiscence. Don’t stop imploring the help of the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The outlaw flesh fights all attempts to rein it in, even as its being taken prisoner. Let good will call for reinforcements. Don’t let good will lose faith…Why? Because the Lord’s on His way. He’s in steady contact with those who believe in Him…So Truth, whose nativity we’re celebrating…has spring from the earth. Why? That peace may be on earth to men of good will.
A question. Who’s the perfect candidate to will and to carry out what one wills? No one but the Lord. Well, He’s the One who will help us, inspiring us to do what we should. Just know that His mercy has preceded our every step, cutting a swath before us. The result? We who wanted to will but weren’t able to are nonetheless called by Him and given the power by Him to do what we thought we couldn’t.”
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) in “Sermon CXCIII” Christmas #10 in Sermons to the People: Advent, Christmas, New Year’s, Epiphany, trans. and ed. by William Griffin (New York: Image, 2002) 109-112.
It’s Christmas eve. It seemed fitting to read Augustine. I love his pointed sermons. He calls it like he sees it, like we all see it. Our flesh draws us to live for ourselves and for good times on earth. Yet, this holy day directs our attention upward, to live for the kingdom of the heavens as people of peace. The key, as Augustine keenly notes, is to demand our good will come to its senses. We can fulfill our role on this earth because of the nativity!
Because truth has come to us with grace and mercy we are empowered when before we were powerless. We can will to do the good God wants us to do because we have been made alive in Christ. We can now be generous, as generosity is a fruit of the Spirit, because apart from Christ, no one does good or is generous. No one! And we celebrate because Christ has come and made all this possible. Glory to God in the highest!
Father, by the power of your Holy Spirit and by the grace and mercy of Jesus at work in us, bring peace to earth through our good will. Hear our prayer and make it so we ask in the name of our newborn King. Amen.