“They shall beat their swords into plowshares ?and their spears into pruning hooks” Isaiah

Today’s magnificent reading from Isaiah – one of my two favorite Scripture passages– challenges all of us, not just world leaders, to work for peace.

Isaiah’s image of the plowshare is particularly apt. The plowshare symbolizes the hard work it takes to feed the hungry. We can view it as an admonition to care for the neediest among us. Pope Paul VI perhaps said it best. “If you want peace, work for justice.”

These are hard times and they are likely to get worse before they get better. We’ll all be tempted to shelter what we have lest we fall victim to unemployment or some other catastrophe.

Isaiah’s “plowshares” image admonishes us that we can’t do this. We need to tell our new leaders that caring for the poor is a priority even if, heaven forbid, some of us have to pay higher taxes. We need to toss more than a bit of change into those Red Kettles outside the grocery store and into the St. Vincent de Paul collection boxes at church.

We can all envision our small part of working for justice. We can also do our tiny bit for peace.

All of us (myself included) have personal “swords” that we need to turn into plowshares. This is the perfect time of year to try to do that – to try to heal the breaches in our relationships. If all of us try to change our small corners of the world even modestly and speak out for government policies to promote peace and justice, we may have more power to realize the vision of Isaiah than we imagine.

Have a great Advent!!!!