Variety: John 20v19,21
Resurrection: A Nonviolent Commission
Peace activist John Dear finds encouragement for living a nonviolent life in Jesus’s words to his disciples after his resurrection:
When he rose from the dead and appeared to his awe-struck disciples on that Easter Sunday night, [Jesus] told them repeatedly, “Peace be with you.” He showed them his wounds, and repeated his greeting, “Peace be with you.” In that resurrection moment, he offered a peace that is not of this world. It is the peace that comes about through total surrender, nonviolence, non-retaliation, and unconditional, universal love. If, like the nonviolent Jesus, we choose not to respond to violence with further violence, if we dare respond with love, surrender ourselves to God, and practice creative nonviolence, then, come what may, we will know a new kind of peace.
Life is short. We have only so many years left. Even if we eat right, lose weight, exercise daily, and take care of ourselves, our time on earth is limited. What do we want to do with the time that is given us? How can we get beyond ourselves and help relieve suffering and disarm the world? If we surrender our hearts, wills, and lives to the living God of Peace, I believe we will be given the resurrection gift of peace, and become instruments of God’s peace and universal love. Resurrection means having nothing to do with death, having not a trace of violence within us. When we live in the peaceful spirit of resurrection, we find ourselves practicing the boundless love and gentleness modeled for us in the nonviolent Jesus, who came to reconcile humanity to God, which is the ultimate act of peacemaking. This resurrection peace is ours for the asking if we dare choose it and surrender.
If we dare surrender to the God of Universal Love and Peace right now, then we can go forth into the world of violence and war, without fear, worry, anxiety, or anger, and be transforming agents of loving nonviolence like Gandhi and Dr. King, and know, with the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, that “all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.”