Fr Billy Swan
Dear friends. On this holy night, exactly 110 years ago, something remarkable happened in our world that continues to give us hope. In the trenches during World War I, on Christmas night 1914, Allied troops heard German soldiers in the trenches opposite them, singing Christmas carols including ‘Stille Nacht’ or ‘Silent night’. The Allied soldiers responded with carols and hymns of their own as the guns fell silent on Christmas night. The following day, Christmas Day 1914, British and German soldiers met in no-man’s land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and even played a game of football. Tragically, it was not to last as hostilities resumed on St Stephen’s Day and the bloodshed returned.
Yet, this moment in time, born on this night 110 years ago, offers hope to us and to our world that badly needs it. For on that night in 1914, the soldiers saw beyond the differences between them and allowed the spirit of Christmas and the gift of peace to reign, the peace for which Jesus was born, for which he lived, suffered and died.
It is this hope of peace for all humankind that we also long for here tonight. In the first reading, the name of the Messiah was announced as the ‘Prince of Peace’. And when the Messiah eventually came, this is precisely who he was – the ‘Prince of Peace’, not just by name but by nature. Every word he spoke and everything he did was for peace. Sometimes he shattered a false peace that he saw would only last for a while. But the peace that he brought to humanity was founded on us being at peace with God and with one another. Here is the peace that is born of love of God and love of one another. And this is why it was no coincidence that the outbreak of peace for only one day in World War I, happened on this Christmas night. It was the perfect realization of what the angels announced to the shepherds in tonight’s Gospel: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace to people who enjoy his favour’.
Tonight we hold out this same hope for Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Israel, Sudan and every other part of the world that is lacking in peace. We pray that the peace that broke out on this night 110 years ago like a light in the terrible darkness of war, might burn brightly once again.
That said, there is something else we can do to bring greater peace to the world and that is to be at peace ourselves. With so many people who come back to Church even once a year, I believe that your reasons for doing so are far deeper that tradition or sentimentality. Perhaps we come here tonight because deep down, we long for a deeper peace that nothing can satisfy except the peace of God that is offered to us this night. Tonight is a night to repeat what happened in the trenches 110 years ago – to stop warring among ourselves and to come home to God’s love, his truth, mercy and peace. It is time to come back to the Eucharist and to Confession and family of the Church where Christ is waiting to meet us. No matter how bad we are or how our past has been, Jesus is waiting for us to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves and that is to leave us at peace. Once we hand over to him all of our sadnesses, addictions, sins and distractions, he replaces these negative things with the gift of his peace that nothing else can replace. Here is the meaning of Christmas and the real reason we rejoice this night.
To conclude. The Christmas truce of 1914 was the inspiration behind Paul’s McCartney’s song ‘The Pipes of Peace’ that made it to No. 1 in 1983. In it he sang about our children:
‘Help them to learn (Help them to learn)
Songs of joy instead of "burn, baby, burn" (Burn, baby, burn)
Let us show them how to play the pipes of peace
Play the pipes of peace’.
On this holy night, may the whole Church plays the pipes of peace and sings with joy because the prince of peace has been born. May He be our peace and the peace of all humanity once again.
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