Waiting for Justice and Peace

As someone who is entering the 24th advent of my life, I am no stranger to the theme of waiting that seems to come up around this time every year. We all hear about how challenging it is to wait, but how much we are able to learn by practicing patience. We are also reminded about how this waiting for the birth of Jesus is something that should not be passive, but active (whatever that looks like for you).

As the predictable blogs and articles surfaced on my predominantly Catholic Facebook newsfeed about the significance of waiting, I started to reflect on what it is that I am personally waiting for during this time of advent. Two things jumped to the front of my mind almost instantly: justice and peace.

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions for our world, unfortunately most of those emotions erring on the side of sadness, hopelessness, fear, grief, and anger. These events range from the ISIS terrorist attacks in Lebanon, Beruit, and Paris, to the tense discussion around Syrian refugees entering the United States, to the release of a video and charge of a white police officer shooting a black young man 16 times almost a year ago right here in Chicago. Now two large mass shootings occurred within a week of each other here in the United States. So much pain exists in this world. If this past month is any indication of the future of the human race, it’s easy to see why people are losing hope.

So this advent season, as I wait for the birth of Jesus, I’m also waiting for the peace and justice that our world so desperately needs.

I am waiting for justice to account for all of this suffering and for the many people whose suffering is not brought to attention through the fault of the media. Who will be held accountable? What are the proper consequences? But more importantly than all of this, how do we apply the concept of justice to larger systems so that we can prevent this suffering from happening in the first place?

I am waiting for peace to overcome vengeful violence. Violence seems to be coming from every corner of the world, and the response tends to be even more violence. What will it take for leaders to discuss and agree on peaceful solutions to these problems? What can we do as individuals to contribute to a more peaceful society where war is no longer the default answer?

I wish I could say that I have answers to some of these questions, but I don’t. What I can say is that we must continue to actively work for peace and justice in our communities. We all have day-to-day encounters with these large concepts on a smaller scale. How we react in those moments will greatly affect our response as a world when larger forces are at work. It’s crucial that we all stay engaged and do our part individually to contribute to shifting our society from one of violence, to one of peace; one of inequality and unfairness to one of justice.

I invite you to join me in this period of active waiting throughout the Advent season. As we pray for peace and justice throughout the world, let us find hope in the small daily acts, reminding us that we are not alone in the struggle.

— Megan McGuire, Advocacy Coordinator