Jesus saw nonviolence not as a passive response, but as a way of directly confronting evil in such a manner that he, and we, do not succumb to it. Instead, he, and we, show it for what it is to the world and to the perpetrators themselves. Jesus sought and still seeks to replace the way of violence with The Way of Love.
As we step into another year of life on Earth together, perhaps one resolution we could make is to take seriously what energies we let our lives be exposed to. And then commit to return, over and again, week after week, to be nourished and transformed by these living sacraments to the way, not of violence, but of love.
We’ve all got different ideas about what constitutes a disaster: everyday mishaps, personal tragedies, political nightmares, global catastrophes. But by definition, from its roots, a disaster is to be without a star. Dis-aster.
The incarnation was not a one-time event for Jesus. It is a springboard for entering relationships with us –
relationships that are lasting,
relationships that are timeless.