Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands and to discover that I am not what I own, but what you want to give me. And what you want to give me is love—unconditional, everlasting love.
Amen.
“When there is a long violent conflict, often the victims feel they have their dignity taken from them. What we hope to do—what the peace process has to do—is recognize their humanity and place the victims, rather than the perpetrators or militaries or political leaders back at the center. The victims are the protagonists. This shift in perspective is crucial for making lasting peace.”—Josefina Echavarria Alvarez
Sometimes (excerpt)
Sometimes I awake
and read the news,
and want to hold the world
as far away as possible.
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty (forthcoming from Paraclete Press May 9th!)
What challenges your ability to love the world?
Register for the free book launch on May 8th!
I am looking forward to the release of wonderful new book of poetry from Christine Valters Paintner!
Thomas Merton wrote the following words in an article he was asked to write for the magazine “Commonwealth” in 1961. Even though the article was discussing the Nuclear Arms Race, I find his words prophetically relevant sixty-two years later.
We have to become aware of the poisonous effect of the mass media that keep violence, cruelty, and sadism constantly present in the minds of uninformed and irresponsible people. We have to recognize the danger to the whole world in the fact that today the economic life of the more highly developed nations is centered largely on the production of weapons, missiles, and other engines of destruction… We have to recognize the implications of voting for politicians who promote policies of hate. (Passion for Peace: Reflections on War and Nonviolence, pp. 57-58)
William H. Shannon, the book’s editor, wrote the following in his introduction to the chapter “Nuclear War and Christian Responsibility.” Merton’s views weren’t popular within the church and nation. Shannon wondered how Merton felt while dealing with the censors within his order and the greater church. These various rewrites also indicate something of the anguish, anxiety, and loneliness Merton experienced in presenting the positions he felt obliged to take. (p. 41)
In a world that is so fractured by division, mistrust, hatred, and fear; his words cut right to the core of the matter which is the chaos that has become human community. Battle lines are drawn and sides are arming up for war. The war of words can quickly escalate into a literal battle of arms. In a day and time where the idea of shooting first without considering other options is commonplace, the fears are being stoked by so many.
It is at times like this where I wrestle with my own responsibility to challenge what is all too commonplace today. I often feel my own anguish, anxiety, and loneliness while I wrestle with how to stay informed without being swept overboard by the tsunami that is the 24-hour news/opinion cycle. The whole mess is overwhelming for me to say the very least. Yet when I feel like withdrawing from the chaos and hiding away, I hear the words of Jim Finley, a clinical psychologist and former novice at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane, who studied under Merton, as he described a teaching moment with Merton. He had come in to see Merton and was complaining about something. Merton told him: You didn’t come here to breathe the rarified air beyond the suffering of this world. You were brought here by God to experience the suffering of the whole world in your heart. Otherwise there’s no justification in living in a place like this. (John Paul, a song from Alana Levandoski’s album, Point Vierge)
To take on the suffering of the whole world in your heart… that’s a pretty hefty task to be given. However, just as Merton wasn’t the only monk in the world with this task, you and I dear reader, aren’t alone in this call to make a difference in the world today. Will you join me? By the grace of God, we will have the strength to do this together.
“Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.”—Elie Wiesel
Verse of the day
No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
– Proverbs 28:13
Voice of the day
Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough.
– Ted Chiang, The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate (2007)
Prayer of the day
Lord, remind us that there is forgiveness for our past sins. Open our eyes to where we should seek forgiveness from others.
“I am convinced we are at a critical moment in history. We are going to need people who know how to be peacemakers, because that’s what it will take to choose love instead of the fear swirling around us.”—Shane Claiborne (read further at: CAC blog)
“King did fit the profile of a revolutionary, but not the kind Hoover and the paranoid right imagined. King’s radicalism stemmed from his understanding of Christianity as a moral belief system that called upon people to apply uncompromisingly the egalitarian teachings of Jesus to the world around them.”—Michael K. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Dr. King’s Last Campaign
Today Denise was making some business cards for me. This is the first time that I have had business cards that don’t have have the specifics of my current call on them. They simply have the denominational seal (Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.)) along with my contact information on them. However, they also have a quote from Thomas Merton’s book No Man Is an Island (also found in the book, A Thomas Merton Reader, p. 125) at the bottom.
This quote represents my own journey from the military ministry to my call to be a peacemaker. — The God of peace is never glorified by human violence.
Dear reader, my prayer for you and for this world is that we can live out the call, in the words of St. Francis of Assisi, to be instruments of God’s peace.
“Nonviolence confronts systematic injustice with active love, but refuses to retaliate with further violence under any circumstances. In order to halt the vicious cycles of violence, it requires a willing acceptance of suffering and death rather than inflicting suffering or death on anyone else.”—John Dear, Living Peace: A Spirituality of Contemplation and Action
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 