Peace on Earth?

It is with great sadness that I write of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination Thursday. The familiar phrase of “peace on earth, good will to all” that we sang for Christmas seems if not silenced, at least over taken by the ring of a gunshot and the blast of a bomb. Peace seems now a distant dream, and even perhaps an unachievable one in the wake of such a violent act. The foundation of this dream of peace of which we sing, is built through non-violent, risky compassion. It is still my belief that this risky compassion is the only way that offers the world a way out of its self-destructive track on which violence sets us. Redemptive love, ultimately is our only hope. While today’s act of violence sends shock waves around the world, it is a reminder of the cruelty of violence. Violence has always been a part of the political landscape. When power feels threatened, it moves to secure itself unremorsefully of the death it causes and the means it must use. The innocent are victims to this age old, all too familiar paradigm. This week’s reading from Matthew 2: 13-23, tells of the brutality of power again reminds us of the paradigm.
May the song of “ peace on earth, good will to all” continue to ring in our ears, pond in our hearts and fuel our work to be agent of that peace as we mourn the death of Benazir Bhutto.