Advent prepares for the annual celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas and his revelation to the nations at Epiphany. The Church year moves in a cycle of promise-fulfillment-proclamation, often using the images of darkness and light. With Advent, we enter the first part of the cycle—promise—as the dark period of the solar year begins.

This Advent season as we begin a new Church year, we focus our attention on the light of Jesus’ presence. We desire to let his vision and values enlighten us and transform the darkness of our lives so that we may become a light that will lead others to God.

The first reading of this new liturgical year opens with “The word that Isaiah son of Amos saw.” Isaiah saw a message from God: a vision of peace, a time when people would turn swords into ploughshares and no one would “learn war” anymore.

It takes more than visualizing. That’s part of Paul’s message in the second reading: to “wake from sleep”—not just to dream about doing good, but to put our dreams into practice. “The day is near,” Paul says. There are things that should not be put off, opportunities for good that shouldn’t be missed. In the gospel, too, is this sense of urgency: “Keep awake….for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” As both Paul and Jesus insist, we don’t know how much time we have, so we must be prepared to act. We can’t just dream.

We must go beyond visualizing peace to actually working for peace. What are the steps we can take, the attitudes we can adopt, the organizations we can support, the lessons we can learn in the cause of peace?

For the Church, Advent is the beginning of a new year. This year, let us make a new year’s resolution to become a peaceful people…