Advent 2 - PEACE

Today's Service - Audio Recording

A Radical Vision of Peace - Luke 1:39-56

The second Sunday in Advent, with the lighting of the second advent candle, invites us to reflect on the theme of peace—not a superficial calm, but a profound and transformative peace that transforms individual human hearts and goes on to reshape the very fabric of our world. It is a peace born of a radical love for others. Nowhere is this vision clearer than in the Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise in Luke 1 as she bursts into song at meeting her cousin Elizabeth.  

Mary has just learned that she is pregnant. The first thing she does is go on a road trip into the hill country to meet with her beloved cousin Elizabeth.  The news cannot be contained in her own heart. It needs to be shared with someone special. Someone she trusts. Someone who will not reject her because she is not yet married. Someone whose heart is big enough to embrace her in this in this moment of both joy and crisis. 

The bond between Elizabeth and Mary is tangible.  There is a shared intuition between them.  Elizabeth’s own heart leaps within her at the arrival of Mary and at the same time, the child in her womb leaps as well. She senses that something deeply significant for the world is unfolding in Mary’s life and growing in her womb. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And in response, Mary bursts spontaneously into song.  The opening passages of Luke’s Gospel read a little bit like a musical. 

But the song of Mary is no lullaby; it is in fact quite a radical manifesto of love. It is a bold declaration that peace comes not through preserving the status quo but through a radical reordering of society on the principles of love, bringing justice and balance to a world fractured by inequality under the Roman Empire and a corrupt and patriarchal Jewish hierarchy – a symbol of all corrupt and patriarchal religious institutions in this world that undermine the ways of love and peace while pretending to be righteous and religious on the outside. 

Mary’s visit to Elizabeth is thus more than just a meeting of relatives. It is a quiet revolution of love and kindness, a coming together of two women baring within them the seeds of profound change for the world they live in. A change that begins from within.  Elizabeth bares within herself the seed of John the Baptist who will call people to a radical change in their lives.  Mary bears within her womb the seed of Jesus – the King of Love. And in their exchange, we see a glimpse of the conditions for real peace that Mary proclaims. It is a peace born in community and solidarity between two marginalised women, where the lowly are lifted up, and where hope for a better world is rekindled.

Elizabeth’s affirmation of Mary—“Blessed are you among women”—is an act of courage in itself. It recognizes that peace begins in the margins, where the world’s forgotten and oppressed find their voices. This setting prepares us for the song of Mary, which shifts our focus from the personal to a new vision of hope and peace for the world born of reverence to the God of Goodness and Love.  

Mary’s Magnificat is not merely a hymn of gratitude; it is a proclamation of God’s justice breaking into the world. “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” These are not abstract ideas—they are a call to reimagine society. 

This is peace as justice, peace as a realignment of power and resources. In a world where the few hold much and the many struggle, Mary’s words are a challenge to all systems of oppression and exclusion that leave people marginalised and powerless, unable to fulfil the potential that God has placed within them. They remind us that true peace cannot exist without addressing inequality or without actively seeking to the flourishing of those at the bottom of society. 

As Khalil Gibran wrote, “You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief, but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them unbound.” Peace is not the absence of struggle but the presence of justice and dignity for all and the vision of devoting our lives to creating value in the world.

Mary’s song also envisions balance, a restoration of harmony to a world out of sync. The proud are humbled, and the humble are lifted up. The hungry are fed, and the rich are emptied. This is not about punishment; it is about healing fractured societies that are out of balance and out of harmony with themselves. It is the recognition that a society in which resources and power are hoarded by a few is not only unjust but unstable. The hoarding of wealth undermines the harmony and stability of society.  It is a well known fact that those societies that are the most unequal in the world also have the greatest levels of crime and violence. And so we ignore the needs of those at the bottom of society at our own peril.  And the flourishing of those at the bottom of society is for the benefit and harmony of the whole. 

The Dhammapada teaches, “Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.” Mary’s vision aligns with this truth: the peace she sings of is not born of retribution but of restoration. It is a peace that seeks the flourishing of all, not just a privileged few.

In our fragile world, the Song of Mary remains profoundly relevant. We see its echoes in movements for economic justice, environmental stewardship, and human rights. Mary’s vision calls us to ask: Where are the hungry in our world today? Who are the lowly waiting to be lifted up? What are the places of imbalance in the world today where balance needs to be restored? And what is our role in this work of peace?

John O’Donohue offers this wisdom: “May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart. May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.” I think these were words that Gavin Byrne used in his sermon last week.  The Song of Mary invites us to see our work for peace as sacred, to recognize that even small acts of kindness and courage contribute to a larger transformation.  Jesus suggests that even the smallest act of deep and genuine love and care for others (especially the lowly and marginalised) is like leaven that causes the whole dough to rise. 

And so as we light the second candle of Advent – the candle of Peace, not just on our Advent wreathe, but even more so as we light it in our hearts, may we remember that peace is not passive. It is a bold, radical act of love for others. It calls us to move beyond our own limited and narrow self-interest. It calls us to challenge systems of inequality, to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to create spaces where balance can be restored and where all can flourish.

And so in the spirit of Mary’s song, may we be peacemakers this advent. Not merely wishing for a better world but actively participating in building one. May we, like Mary, sing songs of justice and joy, trusting that the seeds we plant today will grow into a harvest of hope and harmony into the future.  May we remember that no seed of love planted in the world is ever too small to make a difference… even if it as small as a mustard seed.