Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience. — Peace in the Post-Christian Era, p. 90
War does not solve problems; on the contrary, it amplifies them and inflicts deep wounds on the history of peoples, which take generations to heal. No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, or stolen futures. May diplomacy silence the weapons! May nations chart their futures with works of peace, not with violence and bloodstained conflicts! — Pope Leo XIV
Violence doesn’t work. War doesn’t work. Violence in response to violence always leads to further violence. As Jesus said, “Those who live by the sword, will die by the sword. Those who live by the bomb, the gun, the nuclear weapon, will die by bombs, guns and nuclear weapons.” You reap what you sow. The means are the ends. What goes around comes around.
War can not stop terrorism because war is terrorism. War only sows the seeds for future wars. War can never lead to lasting peace or true security or a better world or overcome evil or teach us how to be human or as Merton insists, deepen the spiritual life.
Underneath this culture of war and injustice is a sophisticated spirituality of violence, a spirituality of war, a spirituality of empire, a spirituality of injustice that has nothing to do with the living God or the Gospel of Jesus. In this false spirituality, we believe violence saves us, war brings peace, might makes right, nuclear weapons are our only security, God blesses wars, we seek not forgiveness and reconciliation but victory and domination, and the good news is not the love of enemies but the elimination of enemies. It’s heresy, blasphemy and idolatry. — Fr John Dear (source)
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”—Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
“Alone, we can do so little. Together, we can do so much.”—Helen Keller
The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Love: but where freedom, justice, education, and a decent standard of living are not to be had in society, how can the Kingdom of Love be built in that society? — Disputed Questions, p. 130 (ebook)
“So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable.”—Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means
“Holy Story-weaver, help us to listen and respond to the cries of those who are ignored, pushed aside, and told they do not matter. May we co-weave a sacred narrative of being that bends the arc of the universe towards dignity, justice, and peace.”
—Melinda Thomas, Virtual Celtic Pilgrimage: The Wisdom of Saints Colman, Sourney, and Patrick — A Self-Study, Online Retreat
What are the ways you can attune your ears to listen and ready your hands to affirm and co-create with those who are marginalized?
The prophetic tasks of the church are to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair. — Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks
“Nothing’s stronger than the will of the oppressed.”—MC Abdul, “Shouting at the Wall”
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