Jesus did not directly attack the political oppression of the Roman invaders, nor the socio-economic enslavement of his people, but he did undermine its foundations. He went to the root of the domination of some over others in order to awaken our consciences, and to urge our hearts to let go of our abuse of power and our structural violence. It took a few generations for the fermentation of his Good News to subvert the Roman Empire, but it did subvert it… In this way, the radically non-violent Jesus is more revolutionary than the revolutionaries!
The heart of the story is that his Father is JUST and MERCIFUL: a God bowed over us with His heart pressed against our sufferings. And He invites us to conversion: to choose to trust in Him, to believe in His infinite patience and mercy, in the radical benevolence of His Divine Providence.
Our conversion during this Lenten season is not primarily about what we do, but about what we think; how we imagine God. He tells us that, despite the appearance that the superficial and short-term are effective, it is the radical transformation of human hearts that has the power to change the face of the world. Do we believe it?
Spring is not only the right time for strategists to launch a military operation against our neighboring country; it is also our annual, resolute ascent towards Easter, towards death and resurrection. Joyful Lent – a Lent joy-filled in peace and in the determination for a just peace!
Imagine that you are in 1940. Your country has been invaded by Germany. The Nazis demand that Jews wear the Star of David on their arms, without saying that this is the first step towards their deportation and extermination. You are a simple citizen, poor and destitute. What do you do? Because you are creative and resolutely committed to active non-violence, that is to say, to the art of preventing any human group from abusing its power, from making the slightest profit from it, you begin to think, with that imaginative intelligence that creates new solutions. You say to yourself: they want to single out the Jews and prepare us to set them apart from our society.
What can we do, so as not to fall for their low-grade trick?
… Eureka, let’s all wear the star. How to do it?
…I’ve got it: I will find the king of the country and tell him about it. When he is convinced, I will ask him to convince the political and economic power elites + the intelligentsia that they all start wearing the Star of David armband at the same time.
…and that they all invite everyone around them to do the same: spouse, children, neighbours, etc., etc.,…
Translation (without the pun / play on words in French) : Shameless (takeover/control) turning into a lowly quest
« No one can make you feel inferior without your consent » (Éléonore Roosevelt).
« During the Second World War, a Russian soldier returned home from the battle lines for a short break. As he approached the apartment where he lived with his wife, he saw a pile of bodies piled up in the street that men were loading onto a truck for burial. When he got close, he saw a woman’s leg wearing a shoe that he recognised belonged to his wife. Taking her in his arms, he realised that she was still alive. In the apartment, he took care of her and she survived. Eight years later, in 1952, their son was born: Vladimir Putin » (Hillary Clinton, Hard Choices).
I receive this story as an invitation to look consciously at the often unconscious and muted chain of violence, which begins in the concrete reality of our personal dramas traumatised by war…
« Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed » (preamble to the Constitution of UNESCO, 1945).
How we go from a just war to a holy war and then to a crusade?
1) In the 11th century, military expeditions were essentially an act of solidarity by the West towards its brothers in the East who were threatened by Turkish expansion: a war justified by Realpolitik, a lesser evil necessary for geostrategic reasons.
2) As the violence escalated, it became a holy war: by dying in battle, you became martyrs for the Christian faith that you were protecting against Islam.
3) The term crusade appears only at the end to reinforce the justification of the violence: killing and being killed became meritorious; it ensured the salvation of your soul.
10 (21 – 11) lessons from the 11th century for the 21st century?
In World War 2, “never in his history has man competed so much with the devil nor given so many lessons to hell” (André Malraux).
On October 9, 1989, in Leipzig, East Germany, exactly one month before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the whole city was talking about the non-violent demonstration planned for the evening. Everyone had been ordered not to go to the city centre in the evening. Everyone saw the tanks deployed, especially around St. Nicholas Church where weekly prayer meetings for peace were held and which had become the symbol of the protest against the oppressive regime. More than 8,000 soldiers and paramilitary militias of Communist workers were mobilised, with orders for a relentless crackdown. All the inhabitants knew about it: tonight, the order to shoot had been given. The fear of a bloodbath was great.
In the evening, 2000 people defied the ban, praying for peace in St. Nicholas church as they do every week. The other churches in the city centre are also full. The tension is at its peak at the end of the prayer; outside, weapons pointed at them will be waiting. The slightest spark will set things off. And then, like the young man who offered his 5 loaves and 2 fishes, someone proposed to light candles and for all to go out holding them in our hands while singing and praying. Here is the testimony of one participant: « When you carry a candle, you must use both hands. You have to protect the flame so that it doesn’t go out. This means that you can’t carry a stone or a stick in your hand at the same time. And this is the miracle! The armed forces were a bit shocked and began discussing among themselves. Then they withdrew. A member of the Central Committee of the East German government confessed: « We were prepared for everything, we had thought of everything, except for the candles bathed in songs of prayer.”
It was the flame of little candles that turned the tide: about 70,000 people dared to go out and gathered at Karl-Marx-Platz. They marched through the city centre, calling « Keine Gewalt! », « No violence! », even passing in front of the railway station and the Stasi headquarters, without any provocation, but with determination. In their just and non-violent struggle, they were ready to be killed, without killing in return. The lamb led to the slaughter? When millions of other people are ready to follow, what can those in power with their weapons do in front of such a mass of unarmed demonstrators? The fall of the wall was already underway as a result of these feet in the street and these hands holding candles aligned with their resolute vision. The spark ignited the fire? Via the international news, the whole country was informed. Millions more in the Soviet Bloc were encouraged to dare to contribute to the change that was happening. Awareness and time are more important than violence and rage!
Thank you for helping to make known the date of October 9, 1989, a decisive date for the rest of history: the fall of the Berlin Wall, through the awakening of consciences and hearts without violence, without a violent revolution. Thank you to the people who will forward this post. Peace in the world begins with such small acts, which can seem as insignificant as candles held in the hand, and yet they make a difference!
The current stalemate in Ukraine bears similarities to the war waged by the Egyptians and Israelis in the 1970s. In response to the Arab attacks, Israel had invaded the Sinai, Egyptian territory, and occupied it heavily armed in order to prevent any surprising attack by Arab fighter planes.
As long as discussions remained on who was going to occupy the Sinai, talks ended in stalemate: neither party would accept to lose! Egypt demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal so as to recover its full sovereignty over the Sinai.
For Egypt, it was a non-negotiable precondition. But security is just as important for Israel!
The stalemate resides in the ‘either… or…’: EITHER Israel continues to occupy Sinai, OR Egypt recovers it. The solution is in an ‘AS WELL AS’: how to ensure that the national integrity of Egypt is restored AS WELL AS Israeli security guaranteed.
In 1978, Jimmy Carter invited the Egyptians and the Israelis to Camp David, where they spent several days. The mediators worked separately with each delegation, focusing on clarifying each side’s interests. As a result, they were able to negotiate legitimate interests and not irreconcilable positions in figuring out how to restore Egyptian national integrity whilst guaranteeing Israeli security. This approach enforced a negotiation process without a loser.
The Camp David accords returned the entirety of the Sinai to Egypt and Israel’s security was ensured by a wide demilitarized zone positioned along the border. In addition, security was supported by warning systems making use of sophisticated radars deployed by the UN forces. This is an extract from my book The C-R-I-T-E-R-E method for improved conflict management, Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2009, p. 275.
The more the war will kill people and destroy at all levels, the more the belligerents will calculate their progress not according to their gains but according to the losses inflicted on the enemy, the more they will move away from this Win-Win process and the more it will take time and energy to return to this inescapable process of honoring the deep and legitimate needs of both parties.
This week, a woman from Kiev had a vision in a dream: in a war-torn city, she is looking for her family. Jesus comes closer to her and she asks him to give her a hand. Jesus, from the cross, replies: “You cannot do both things together; you cannot crucify me and at the same time ask for my help. You have to choose one or the other.” When this person woke up from the vision, she told everyone around her that she had decided to choose what is essential. The Apostolic Nuncio in Kiev shared this witness on March 11, 2022.
Choose what is essential: “You won’t kill,” even if others do.
Non-violence chooses what is essential: if all the inhabitants of a country decide to hold hands in order not to cooperate with the invader, the latter will not be able to subdue them and profit from their violent assaults, all the more so if billions of humans on the planet also hold hands with them, from where they are. Weapons do not make the greatness and heroism of a person, of a nation, but here is what does: 1) their courageous determination not to cooperate with the injustices of which it is aware (and war is one of them), 2) their ability to understand and recognize the profound truth of each party, 3) the art of creating an agreement that takes it into account: a framework of law, authentic communication and effective negotiation, for a just peace. Stay on course.
When everyone is holding hands, what can the Evil One do?
June 2th 2020 : Donald Trump threatens to send the army to « dominate the streets ».
Reaction of the demonstrators: « He wants to dominate us but he will never be able to dominate us ».
The project consisting in dominating someone (take power on / pressure over) brings about costs, falls into traps, leads to deadlock. The C-R-I-T-E-R-E method teaches the right attitude that articulates the plans to 1) understand the people on the street (the power to be with them) and 2) guarantee justice (the power to respect the common good).
Leaving the false dilemma between hawks and doves. Eliminating all gestures, all words like « power on / under the other » and deploy the powers « for / to » and « with ».
Cf. CHOMÉ Étienne, The C-R-I-T-E-R-E method for improved conflict management, PUL, p. 50 sq. & Le nouveau paradigme de non-violence, p. 149 sq.
The C-R-I-T-E-R-E method, : AND autority AND comprehension without any autoritarism or passivity.
The Chinese word CRISIS combines the words « wei » (DANGER) and « ji » (OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE), to signify a tipping point, a decisive moment: the role of the crisis is to make even more obvious the necessity to make the right changes, which require courage since it means giving up things that we have got used to. The alarm bells of the conflict stop ringing once we have invested in peace opportunities to the point that the danger has passed, without making us fall into the violence of war. It is then (and only then) that we can be proud of having managed the crisis well, of having escaped a conflict that degenerates into war.
Cf. Étienne Chomé, The C-R-I-T-E-R-E method for improved conflict management, Presses Universitaires of Louvain, 2009, p. 39.
