Parakalein

Violence comes from within.  Inside all of us is a part that wants to win and hates to lose.   That parts presents an internal conflict that creates polarities in the system of our hear and mind.

Recently I invited a group to think about someone or something they hated.  Then I asked them to focus on the part of them that hated that person or thing.  To imagine that they were right to hate and that justice would be served by expressing that hate.  Then i asked them to imagine another part that saw such hatred and justification of hatred as anything but just.  Then I asked them (and myself as I was a participant and a presenter) if they could breathe space into their internal system and invite compassion to sit where judgment sat, to look at the part hated for good reason and with good reason, and ask that judgmental part to step aside, making room for grace and releasing it from the grave of darkness into the grave of grace.  Here where grief and grace meet is where light shines.  This light does not dismiss the darkness but dispels the illusion of darkness and opens the space up to light.

Then refocus on the part in the person you hate or the thing you hate and look at that part with the compassion and calm within you.  Let he goodness within you not be overcome with the evil outside but overcome that evil outside with goodness from inside.  Evil is not good but when met with goodness it fades into the faith that sees it with grace.

Imagine that to be the message of Easter.  Let the evil of hatred and violence in the world be met by the part of me that settles the hatred and violence inside with the compassion that looks with the eyes of grace at the betrayal, the burden, the bruised and the beaten parts of me and the parts of me that would betray, burden, bruise, and beat others.

While I can justify anything from my reactions to other to warfare, that does not make it just.  Innocent parts in my brother or sister are wounded like innocent people in all wars are wounded and die.  That is not just, it is never just.

Justice is never served by acts of justice but by being just in our thoughts, feelings, reactions and actions.

It was not just that Jesus died for my sin.  But it was just for the God of justice to give himself to die to teach us that the road to justice is being just toward all within and without.  To welcome all parts of all people regardless of anything, with compassion, calmness and care and without fear of loss, desire for gain, without agenda or assumption, and with liberty and justice for all.