Monday, November 27, 2023

ENCOUNTERING EVIL

In any encounter with evil, we must have love in our hearts and we must absolutely trust in the goodness of God and God's call.  We are enjoined by Christ not only to love God and our neighbors but also to love our enemies. This seems a hard enough task by itself, and it has led a number of people to believe that Christians should be nonresistant or even compliant with injustice in the cause of “turning the other cheek."  But if we are to try to follow Jesus' example as well as His words, it is impossible to remain uninvolved.  Jesus stood up to Satan, threw money changers out of the Temple, and stepped in to stop the unjust stoning of a woman.

Somehow, then, we are asked not only to love our enemies but to resist them while we are loving them.  I would propose that a partial answer to this challenge lies in a radical, absolute, and wordlessly contemplative trust.  It is, I think, something reflected in 1 Peter 1:13 (JB):  "Free your minds, then, of encumbrances: control them, and put your trust in nothing but the grace that will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."  It is only in such absolute trust that love can be fully energized for nondestructive action.

-- Gerald May in “Living with Apocalypse” 


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