Thomas Merton once again draws on the writing of Hannah Arendt as he continues to comment about the way of non-violence in the life and teaching of Gandhi in India.
A violent change would not have been a serious change at all. To punish and destroy the oppressor is merely to initiate a new cycle of violence and oppression. The only real liberation is that which liberates both the oppressor and the oppressed at the same time from the same tyrannical automatism of the violent process which contains in itself the curse of irreversibility. "The freedom contained in Jesus' teaching of forgiveness is the freedom from vengeance which encloses both the doer and the sufferer in the relentless automatism of the action process, which by itself need never come to an end."
It is important to hear the many levels on which this is a necessary part of our lives - from the most personal to the global. The need for the liberation of all sides is so vital - we cannot move into a new realm unless it takes place. Otherwise, we are always carrying a load that is unnecessary and tends to drag down our relationships and the truthfulness of those relationships. If both "sides" - the doer and the sufferer - continue on in their roles and the paths of life that are needed to sustain those two "sides," I would suspect that when the day of "liberation" comes, it would be so easy for the two sides to simply flip over and be as the other...never creating a new reality...never taking hold of the power of forgiveness...never experiencing the power of resurrection. Rather, the same cycle is passed down from one to another. The pain...the evil...the abuse...the violence...the hatred - all continues even when it takes on a different face with a new name.
Connection: So, do we dare to face the brokenness within our lives so that we can begin to live new lives within situations that so easily remain broken?
Refreshing Spirit, when your wind of new life blows around us, we are caught off-guard and our hearts begin to be open to the expansiveness of your realm of hope and resurrection. We pray for that wind to whip around us...again...and...again. Amen.
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