#john dear

That is why we remember the first disciples – because they dropped everything to follow Jesus. And he wants disciples. He needs a community of friends around him to carry on his campaign to make God's kingdom visible here on earth. If we dare join Jesus in his campaign, more will happen than if we tried to go on our own. Our lives are infinitely richer if we let go of everything and follow Jesus. Besides, there is no one else worth following who can compare with him. Even great saints like St Francis and St Clare, Gandhi and Dorothy Day, Dr King and Oscar Romero would agree. Like St Paul, they would insist: don't follow me, follow the nonviolent Jesus wherever he is leading you. He's the only one worth following.

Forgiveness is an act of faith in God, an act of hope in the future, and an act of love for our neighbors. If we dare forgive, we can trust that God will deepen within and among us the gift of peace.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

The nonviolent Jesus has risen above injustice, poverty, and violence. He is risen despite war. Executed himself, he is risen from the death penalty. Christ is risen beyond the power of nuclear weapons, racism, sexism, starvation, global warming, and violence itself. Christ is risen above the culture of death. A bold announcement — and we’re called to prove it. We prove it with the boldness of our own lives, our faith, our nonviolent resistance to the forces of death.

Resurrection brings more than new clothes or Easter baskets. It means peace is stronger than war, justice stronger than injustice, compassion stronger than contempt. Resurrection means forgiveness surpasses resentment and reconciliation surpasses revenge. It means nonviolence wins out over violence — all contrary to the standards of conventional wisdom. In [Daniel Berrigan’s] words, resurrection represents ‘the slight edge of life over death.’ Or, as Dr. King put it, 'Truth crushed to earth shall rise again.’

In a world of total war, a world on the brink of destruction, only one kind of sanctity bears fruit — the kind that Jesus embodied and Franz [Jägerstätter] embraced. Daring nonviolence that refuses to kill, no matter the pretext. Willingness to die without a trace of retaliation. Divine love for everyone, even the enemy. And public, prophetic defiance of patriotic militarism. In an insane world, Frank points the way: refuse to fight, refuse to kill, refuse to be complicit in war-making, refuse to compromise — and put your very self against structures of violence with all the nonviolence in your soul. This is exactly what we need: saints who inspire us to follow the nonviolent Jesus, say no to war, resist the culture of war, speak out for peace, work for justice, and combine the full mystical and political dimensions of faith.

Joan [Baez] learned from Pete Seeger and then from the writings of Gandhi to use her art for social change. She shows us that every peace and justice movement needs every possible creative outlet — music, painting, poetry, drama, film, and literature — to help uphold the vision of a new world without war, poverty, and nuclear weapons. These movements need every one of us to contribute whatever we can. In fact, everything we do should serve peace and justice, the coming of God’s reign of nonviolence here on earth.