Fr Christopher Foeckler, MJ • St Josaphat Formation Center • Phoenix, AZ

“Do not be afraid! I bring you good news of great joy for all the people. For today in the city of David your Savior has been born.” This joyful proclamation of the Angel to the Shepherds is accompanied by an angelic choir singing, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will.” (cf. Lk 2:10-11)

Peace on earth comes with the Savior of mankind, born of the Virgin Mary, to reconcile mankind to God by His Cross and Resurrection to people of “good will.” Peace is dependent on the good will of people. Yet in our fallen nature this ‘good will’ is sorely lacking as the headlines from around the world bode so clearly.

‘Good will’ is the fruit of the Savior’s mission to rescue us from our fears, our hatreds, our prejudices and pettiness toward one another. God the Father demonstrates the supreme ‘good will’ toward men by sending His only begotten Son to be the ransom for our sins Who in turn demonstrates to us by His words and actions how ‘good will’ is lived towards God our Father and towards our fellow man.

When the shepherds went in haste to see what the Angel had made known to them, they found peace on earth in the poor stable of Bethlehem. The Child Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in the manger with Mary and Joseph there had ‘good will.’  When they related all that the Angel had told them about the Child, “Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart,” and she grew in ‘good will.’

The Christian’s assimilation of the ‘good will’ of the Savior is best achieved by contemplating him as Mary did so well, and learning the attitude that was His. “Have this attitude,” St. Paul wrote to the Phillippians, “that was in Christ Jesus.”( Phil 2:5) The closer we get to the source of ‘good will’ in Christ Jesus the Savior, the more interior peace we have and the more ‘good will’ we can show to others, bringing peace to the earth. Contemplating the Child Jesus as Mary did, and with Mary now in our prayerful recitation of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary this Christmas Season and throughout the year, enables us to best assimilate His ‘good will,’ enjoy His peace and live in harmony with those around us.

“The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.”  They were filled with ‘good will’ and peace had come to them on earth.

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