Today I received an email from a group requesting that I sign a petition reprimanding a right wing radio host for calling Pope Francis a ‘Marxist’ My response was going to be why give this extreme person any creditability by signing a petition against him. I know that when I am attacked it often gives me encouragement to continue doing what I am doing and some creditability. Why give someone like this creditability by attacking him. Before I could make such a comment I noticed a number of other persons had made the point in the comment section already.
When someone makes an insulting remark against you or someone you respect, like Pope Francis, it takes the discipline of nonviolence not to react and perhaps even not respond. Taking insults and even injuries in the name of peace and justice is something great saints like St Ignatius of Loyola or great Americans like Martin Luther King Jr. understood, wrote about and practiced.
I find it very hard to treat insult and injury this way. I want the truth, at least my ‘opinion of the truth’ to come out. I think it shows courage to defend oneself against misrepresentation However true nonviolence, takes an act of courage and faith to know ‘all will be well’ without my opinion and response.
Being humble means taking it on the cheek a few times. Silence in the face of insults is holy
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