Violence

Maundy Thursday has much to say both about the location of human flourishing and the role violence might play in it.

The cleansing of the temple reveals the character of our Messiah and is a model for those who would follow him.

Robert Kennedy had rejected the anti-Semitism of his father, Ambassador Joe Kennedy, and had pledged to send 50 jet fighters to Israel to help that small, embattled country survive in a sea of enemies. For that, he would pay with his life.

Against the seemingly gentle assertions of pacifism, those who truly want to love in our world must understand there remains a need of coercion to maintain a minimum of justice and to preserve those innocents whom the unjust would ravage.

Jesus’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31) leads to the core question: who is my neighbor? Although he answers with a parable, Jesus surprisingly does not directly define the term but, rather, he demonstrates something greater. But drawing lessons from this parable today presents a challenge. The world is much bigger, the problems often larger, the potential danger much higher, opinions more varied, and the methods and means at our disposal far more vast. As the scenario is changed, how does the lesson in the parable influence what we do? What if the Samaritan showed up a few minutes earlier, while the robbery was occurring? What is the appropriate response then?