A Thought for Remembrance Sunday Evening.
Jesus did not give his followers a theory of justified violence,
He gave them a way of life.
He told them to love their enemies and pray for their persecutors,
Turn the other cheek and put away the sword.
He healed the sick, fed the hungry, welcomed the excluded,
Confronted hypocrisy; crossed boundaries of purity and tribe;
Forgave sinners and stood before imperial power
without returning violence for violence.
This was not passivity.
It was active, public, disciplined resistance.
Jesus resisted evil without imitating it.
He exposed domination without becoming domineering.
He defended the dignity of the vulnerable without
de-humanizing those who threatened him.
He did not die because he was harmless.
He died because the non-violent reign of God he embodied
Threatened systems built on fear, exclusion and force.
Amen.
[Based on words of Pope Leo XIV]
