The 19th century poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned some verses that resonate today, particularly at Christmastime, and these words deserve to be shared as we prepare to celebrate Christmas Day for 2017.
He began, “I heard the bells on Christmas day, their old familiar carols play …”
We don’t hear many bells play these days, but the point isn’t so much hearing the bells but the carols in which people sing about “peace on earth, good will to men”.
As he went on, he bowed his head in despair. “There is no peace on earth, I said, for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.”
That phrase rings far truer today than even in his day when Longfellow wrote these words, and people may be forgiven if they too feel despair at the news reports of bombings, terror attacks, shootings and death from locations all over the world, even in places normally thought of as relatively peaceful.
The key phrase that is repeated in the verses, “peace on earth, good will to men”, originates from the words spoken by an angel in the fields near Bethlehem, as the birth of Jesus was announced, and we remember those words today, over 2,000 years later.
The words tell us of what is possible, of what can be, and indeed of what a great many people want desperately to be as they flee violence, famine and war. Syrian refugees did it by the millions recently, and many more have been fleeing North Africa, repeating a scene that has been observed many times. In the Second World War, for example, many refugees were moving, trying to escape the pounding bombs and the death and destruction, and it goes on today in many different places.
Turmoil and conflict exists in people’s lives even outside of war zones, as people go through pain and despair in their relationships or in their life circumstances, and they seek answers that will help them.
Reflecting back to the simple message of peace for all people in the form of a helpless little baby boy born so long ago, there is hope to be found there. With this in mind, Longfellow went on to write, “Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, ‘God is not dead nor doth he sleep, the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.” As he ended, “the world revolved from night to day, a voice, a chime, a chant sublime, of peace on earth, good will to men.”
In other words, the sun will rise again and the world will go on, with hope for peace that is still to come. — Greg Nikkel
