Friday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Next week, the International Peace Museum in Dayton will launch an initiative to celebrate A Season for Nonviolence, “a national 64-day educational, media, and grassroots campaign…to promote and spread the principles of nonviolence as a way to create a more inclusive, understanding, and compassionate society.” The 64 days begins on Jan. 26 (the anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi) and concludes on April 4th (the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). At CJ, we are blessed to welcome a special guest, Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi for a visit and school assembly. As part of our mission to commit to faith and justice, many of our student leadership groups have been planning ways to actively collaborate with the Peace Museum and help our student body participate in the campaign for Peace.
The story we hear in today’s first reading from the Book of Samuel is a transformational encounter between two enemies, Saul and David. When Saul, who is on a mission with three thousand men to find and kill David, enters a cave and unknowingly puts himself in danger, David chooses not to lay a hand on Saul. Although Saul was right within David’s grasp, David chooses not to fight hate with more hate. It is as if David was in tune with this campaign for peace and embodied the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” In a world that often compounds darkness and hatred with more of the same, let us learn a lesson from David. In tune with Dr. King, David quotes the beautiful Proverb, “From the wicked comes forth wickedness.” But at some point, the wickedness has to stop and David chooses the path of peace, the path of humility, the path of non-violence–he puts an end to it.
"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.“
-Martin Luther King, Jr.-
Another modern example of peace and non-violence is Fr. Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries. He talks about restoring people to themselves when they have lost their way and forgotten that their life is just as valuable as everyone else’s. He reminds us that “Mother Teresa diagnosed the world’s ills in this way: we’ve just ‘forgotten that we belong to each other.’” In today’s first reading, David restores Saul to himself, as the “Lord’s anointed,” and remembers that they actually belong to each other. It is only when we get close enough to one another to really see one another with God’s eyes, to really listen to one another’s stories and needs with God’s ears–only then can we sense our kinship. It takes David getting closer to Saul... close enough to cut off the end of his mantle… before he has pity on him. If we allow ourselves to go to the margins and encounter the “other,” it will be much harder to do them harm.
So how do we create a community of kinship and a circle of compassion? Fr. Greg challenges us to “imagine no one standing outside of that circle, moving ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves will be erased...We locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless… We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop.” In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus appoints and names the Twelve Apostles, and sends them forth “to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” What would it look like if we were to drive out demons today? If, on a personal level, we stop demonizing those who are different from us (those with different political agendas, religious beliefs, or lifestyles), and then help others drive out those same demons so that we can put an end to the hate. Wickedness begets wickedness, hate breeds hate, darkness produces merely darkness. But to put an end to it…only love can do that.
Since the world is round,
There is no way to walk away
From each other, for even then
We are coming back together
- Amanda Gorman, Call Us What We Carry
Peace,
Brandon Meyer