To turn completely around and to see oneself as nothing but a stone raised up by God, to see God’s favor not as a birthright but as a gift, one that can transform us and transform our world … to see ourselves like that is to have our lives lit up by grace. And it is to see the grace that is present in and extended by a loving God to every last soul we meet, whether they’ve come to know it, or believe it, or trust it or not.
What can we do to stop the violence around us? What we can do is cultivate hearts of gentleness, tenderness, and compassion toward those around us, toward our world, and toward ourselves. We can awaken and orient our minds toward the coming Jesus, who seeks to turn us away from actions, economic choices, words, and thoughts that are destructive, hurtful, and violent. He comes to convert every ounce of our beings into instruments of peace, tools for cultivating peace gardens that germinate in our hearts and minds, and then spread life-giving seeds to our city, nation, and world.
We notice, and we wonder, and we watch for patterns, remembering that our finite minds will always bump up against infinity. This unnerves and comforts, maybe in equal measure.
Both prophets urged people to pay attention to the place where they stood and the moment that was unfolding because if God is with us at all in any meaningful way, it is not as some abstract principle or distant force, but in the life we are actually living. In crumbling temples and audacious building projects. In lush vineyards and lousy crop returns, in typhoons and childbirth, in love, and war, and peace. That—whichever ‘that’ happens to be yours right now—is where God is. And that—whichever ‘that’ happens to be yours—is the moment on which God needs you to train your attention.
In the Beatitudes Jesus hands down to us, we identify with the poor and with those who have experienced or are experiencing loss and grief. When we are reviled and hurt, we even somehow find blessing within that, and we persevere, with God’s help. We keep going. We keep encouraging. We keep loving.