A Christmas to all, and beyond us

A happy, Hobbesian Christmas once more. May peace at home teach all the joy of peace all the year, in family and community.

I once wrote of a Hobbesian Christmas, writing in a dark time of war on several continents. It was with hope that by this time, by the end of 2024, guns would have ceased in the Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and the Holy Land and all the places where families do not gather in joy and peace but huddle in fear and dread. It has not come to be, and since that time indeed more irruptions of raw, bestial humanity have burst upon homes that long for peace.

Peace is no naïve desire but an obligation upon Christians. It is the aim of all society amongst mankind. It was preached by the Prophets of Israel and again in the Gospel. Hobbes observed:

Luke 2:14.:In the Nativity of Christ, the voice of them that praised God saying, Glory be to God on high, and in earth Peace, good will towards men. And Isaiah 53:5. The Gospell is called the chastisement of our Peace. Isaiah 59:8. Righteousnesse is called the way of Peace. The way of Peace they know not, and there is no judgement in their goings.

Micah 5:4,5. speaking of the Messias, he saith thus, He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the Majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall abide, for now shall he be great unto the end of the earth; And this man shall be your Peace, Prov. 3:1,2. My sonne forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my Commandements, for length of dayes, and long life, and Peace, shall they adde to thee.

It is not so long since that these islands were rolled in a most bloody civil war. It was in that context, with its lessons immediately before his eyes, that Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan.

The ‘Warre of all against all’ is close beneath the surface, bubbling not from the Earth but from man. As peace is an obligation so must be the maintenance of social bonds, and ultimately of the Common-wealth; nation and state. We take these things for granted and so can gather in joy around a silly tree and a vast roast fowl, and that is as it should be in a society which maintains its peace and relative prosperity. Outside the blessed bounds of our isles though, where Christ is not preached, or preached poorly, where men feel free to disregard the bonds, the peace and prosperity vanish.

The world and mankind are as Hobbes taught. Relearning those lessons must be one step to achieving peace where there is now fear.

At Christ-tide then, do think of them, and pray for them, and recognise what allows us to enjoy what we have, which is both by our own efforts. and the unearned blessings of God.