“Look for solutions with love; do not harm anyone among you to solve a problem.”
-Pope Francis at Assisi, October 4, 2013
A friend, Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, a Melkite priest, send me this quote above. He added this simple commentary: “That is Gospel Nonviolence in a nut shell.” Father McCarthy has spend his life exploring the Gospel of Nonviolence and is founder of the Center for Christian Nonviolence. Another quote that has come my way recently, this time from the 13 century Sufi mystic, Rumi: “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” These two quotes, put together, represent what I would like to be: A gentle, kind, persistent person struggling to seek the truth in words and action.
I know that I am a loud that often hurts people in my trying to solve problems. A friend, who knew Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker told me she was a strong and firm person of her beliefs but gentle and kind to all. There are many stories of Mahatma Gandhi showing love and respect to his enemies and friends, even those trying to kill him.
A Catholic priest friend of mine, who has spend a number of years in prison for acts of civil disobedience told me that he felt most at home and peaceful in prison. I remember back in 1969 – 1970, when I spent a year in the state’s maximum security prison, fellow prisoners telling me the hardest prison time to serve was when one was counting time to release. Prisoners in for life, with no chance of release, I noticed after a period of rebellious activity settled down and were gentle persons. To “look for solutions with love”, to raise your words, not voice”, and to be like the rain not thunder takes courage and discipline, thinks I often lack. The silence of the life Rumi and Pope Francis are talking about is scary.
Being called an “activist” is something I have tried to avoid in my life. I recently learned that it is a good and complimentary label as long as the activism is accompanied by a quiet gentleness. The ‘activist’ part of working for Gospel values I have done but not been so effective by the how I have been an activist. Being a gentle giant comes brings to mind a quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi to his followers: “Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.”
The last few days there has been a persistent rain and tomorrow, when I look at our rain garden. I will see all the fall flowers blooming. How to be a silent persistent activist, like rain not thunder, is a mystery worth exploring?
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