Luke’s Christmas Story: A Summons to Peacemaking

Dear Friends and Readers,

As my Christmas greeting to you, I offer this updated meditation with a hope that it helps us celebrate the birth of Jesus with deeper meaning and greater commitment.

Merry Christmas,
Fr. Jim Bacik

Luke’s Christmas Story: A Summons to Peacemaking

We first heard the story as children. There was a census so Joseph and Mary had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. While they were there, Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. The angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds and told them the good news that a savior had been born. The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus lying in a manger. After sharing the message of the angel, the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God. Mary kept all these things in her heart.

The evangelist Luke is a marvelous storyteller. His infancy account serves as an overture to his whole Gospel (2: 1-20). Christians believe the story is inspired -the product of a process guided by the Holy Spirit. Scholars view it as a classic narrative filled with a surplus of meaning, even beyond the intention of the author. The challenge for adult believers is to hear the story with fresh ears, and to appropriate its deeper significance so that it can illumine our current experience. The narrative is especially powerful when proclaimed in the Christmas liturgy, with its familiar hymns and inspiring scripture readings.

As we celebrate Christmas 2025, violence threatens the human family: wars that constitute a third world war fought “piecemeal,” as Pope Leo recently repeated; political assassinations; frequent school shootings; sexual abuse; and domestic violence.

Mindful of these and other forms of violence, let us return to the Christmas story as adults in search of motivation and guidance. For Luke, the birth of Jesus is the key event in God’s great plan to save and redeem the whole human family. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary announcing that she is to bear a son. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. God will give him the throne of David and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (1:26-38).  As readers of the story, we know that Jesus is destined to be an even greater reconciler than the great king David, who united the southern and northern tribes of Israel and established Jerusalem as the center of the nation. Jesus, the new David, will establish a kingdom that is peaceful, united, and permanent.

Luke places the story of Jesus within the context of world history. He is born during the reign of the great Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus (37 BC- 14 AD), the architect of a peace built on military might and effective control of subjugated nations. Among the Romans, Augustus was regarded as a savior and a god. As Luke makes clear, the baby born in Bethlehem, the city of David, is the real savior (2:11) and the true peacemaker (2:14). Jesus has worldwide significance. He is a greater king than Caesar Augustus. His dominion is vast and forever peaceful. He rules not by the might of the sword but by the power of nonviolent love.

The presence of angels in the infancy story suggests that the birth of Jesus has transcendent significance. His mandate and power to unite and reconcile comes from God. He is Son of the Most High, as Gabriel proclaims. With words of reassurance, the angel tells the shepherds the newborn is Messiah and Lord. The multitude of the heavenly hosts praise God for the birth of the one who will bring peace to the world. The whole universe rejoices in the birth of the Savior of all people. Jesus is the Word made flesh; the Son of God who pitched his tent on our hard earth; the Lord who won salvation for the whole world.

At the Christmas midnight Mass, the first reading from Isaiah (9:1-6) helps set the stage for the proclamation of Luke’s Gospel and encourages us to further exploration of its meaning. Jesus is the son, anticipated by Isaiah. He is a great light for those who walk in darkness and inhabit the land of gloom. Through him, God brings abundant joy to the oppressed by smashing the rod of the taskmaster and the yoke that burdens them. Jesus is the Wonder-Counselor, the wisdom of God. He knows the secrets of his Father and reveals the divine plan to save and reunite the scattered members of the human race. The baby in the feeding trough for animals will nourish all people with divine wisdom. Jesus is God-Hero who will ultimately defeat all the demonic forces that cause division, hatred and isolation. He is the community builder who reconnects the estranged; the good shepherd who gathers the lost; the bridge-builder who connects the dispersed. For Isaiah, the anticipated son is also Prince of Peace. He will burn in flames the instruments of war, every boot that tramped in battle and every cloak rolled in blood. Upon his shoulders dominion rests, vast and forever peaceful. Jesus is a man of peace who rejects the way of violence. He told his disciples to put away the sword and to refuse the path of vengeance and recrimination. He forgave his enemies and calls upon his followers to follow his example. With guidance from Isaiah, we recognize the reconciling work of Christ as Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero and Prince of Peace.

As the early followers of Jesus reflected on his community-forming activities, they came to see that he himself is the source of unity, the cornerstone of the whole structure. The poetic first chapter of Colossians summarizes much of this development. Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. In him, through him and for him, all things in heaven and on earth were created and are held together. He is the head of the church and the firstborn from the dead. His task is to reconcile all things, making peace by the blood of his cross. Those who were alienated and hostile in mind are now unified in his fleshly body. All fullness now dwells in him as the preeminent glorified Lord. (1:15-23).

From the perspective of this early Christian hymn, we recognize that Jesus is    really brother to every human being who has walked this earth. The universal Christ is the center point of all creation and the source of unity for the whole human family. The death and resurrection of Jesus made irrevocable the status of every human being as an adopted child of God. The risen Christ has sent the Paraclete as a gift uniting all persons wherever they may be. Our union with Christ, both named and unrecognized, constitutes us as brothers and sisters in the Lord. The bonds that unite us are really deeper, stronger and more significant than all the things that divide us, for we are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28).

An authentic celebration of the Christmas liturgy calls us to participate in Christ’s work of reconciliation. To receive communion on Christmas is to accept responsibility for being a peacemaker. Our calling is to tear down walls and build bridges, as did the Master. We often experience a genuine sense of community during the Christmas season as families gather to exchange gifts and share stories. Fidelity to the Gospel demands that we spread and extend this Christmas spirit. We can imagine some examples: reconciling with a friend or family member; participating in ecumenical or interfaith dialogue; helping the hungry and homeless; working for justice and peace. An adult appropriation of Luke’s beautiful infancy story summons us to participate in the peacemaking work of Christ, the Prince of Peace who strengthens us in the fight against the violence of authoritarianism.