“Magi from the east… seek the newborn king.” “We saw his star at its rising” they tell King Herod. “King Herod was greatly troubled.” He believes Jesus wants his throne and will fight him to keep it. Herod plans to kill the child.
From the Gospel we know of the darkness King Herod spreads across his time as a warmaker. Pope Leo XIV writes of such darkness in his 2026 World Day of Peace message – Peace be with you all: Towards an “unarmed and disarming” peace. Leo writes of the “darkness of our times,” when people “surrender to a partial and distorted view of the world, disfigured by darkness and fear” and call it “realistic.” Attempts to make the darkness real come from warmakers of various types, political, financial, celebrity. Warmakers, like Herod, like current ones too, believe they can spread the darkness of war across our entire world; the Middle East, Nigeria, Venezuela, etcetera. Warmakers know “the best way to dominate and gain control over people is to spread despair and discouragement, even under the guise of defending certain values.” The cult of patriotism defended with ‘America First’ is a common manipulated value. Disciples are dehumanized as citizens and made complicit with warmakers’ constant wars. We are demoralized of peace while warmakers coerce us, at best, to “live devoted to deterrence and defense.” When even we disciples “treat peace as a distant ideal,” we experience the darkness of our time. Thus, Leo reminds us of the light of Christ that is Jesus’ “disarming” life. We live in the Spirit of the Light of Christ and in the season of the light of our Sun as both eclipse the darkness. Leo reminds us Jesus’ disarming life begins in our knowing Jesus first as a child. We experience divinity in children and in their presence live a disarming life. So too, we are living Jesus’ “unarmed” life. Our being unarmed like Jesus causes “unease,” certainly for warmakers. Jesus lived an “unarmed struggle in the midst of concrete historical, political and social circumstances.” Let us do the same. Henceforth, we put down weapons of darkness, like hostility and discouragement, and take up energies of light, like power and courage. We are energized as peacemaking disciples, to “live in love of Peace and in love for those who are the enemies of Peace.” “In order to overcome the darkness” that are the enemies of Peace, “it is necessary to see the light and believe in it.” It is our call as peacemakers, in the darkness of our times, to shine as the real light of peace. Leo calls us to “promote self-awareness in civil societies, forms of responsible association, experiences of nonviolent participation, and practices of restorative justice on both a small and large scale.”
Unarmed and disarming, we peacemakers, “must together bear… witness” to Jesus’ Way, “mindful of the tragedies” in the darkness of our times. We are called to deconstruct every force warring against us and against our shared peace. We live knowing peace is not a distant thing to be fought for. Peace is a present robust power to be witnessed.
Prayer: Spirit of Peace, in the face of warmakers’ dark despair we are peacemakers spreading the light of peace.
Question: What do I, or can I do, to make peace a lasting power?
January 4, 2026 Gospel Matthew 2:1-12 Feast of the Epiphany