This has been a difficult time for any of us who long for signs of peace and justice in our nation. Within the same week, there was politically motivated violence aimed at the President, the Secretary of Defense advocating for a military budget of over a trillion dollars while defending the unjust war with Iran, and a Supreme Court decision that continues to dismantle the Voting Rights Act. At times like this, how do we persevere when the forces of violence, militarism, and injustice seem overwhelming?
Yet during this trying week, I was reminded again that the witnesses of the past offer guidance for the present. I listened to a podcast (The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast) by the teacher and peace activist the Rev. John Dear in which he remembered the life and witness of the Rev. Daniel Berrigan. Along with his brother Philip, Daniel Berrigan was a prophetic peacemaker during the Vietnam war in the 1960’s and a leader of the anti-nuclear weapons movement of the 1980’s. He was arrested numerous times for his nonviolent direct actions and was the first priest to be on the FBI’s most wanted list even though he never engaged in any acts of violence. He continued to be a peacemaker committed to the Way of Jesus until his death on April 30, 2016 at the age of 94. In the podcast, John Dear made reference to a short piece by Daniel Berrigan called “The Time to Obey is Now” in which he responds to criticism for taking the teaching of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount seriously. Here is that piece:
“The Berrigans are off base. They are talking about the Sermon on the Mount as though it is realizable now. What we really need is an ehic of the interim.” An ethic of the interim, as I understand it, would allow us to fill the gap between today and tomorrow with the bodies of all who must die, before we accept the word of Christ. On the contrary, I think the Sermon on the Mount concerns us here and now, or concerns us never. In whatever modest and clumsy way, we are called to honor the preference of Christ for suffering rather than inflicting suffering, for dying rather than killing. In that sense, all “interim ethics” have been cast aside. The time to obey is now.
The life and witness of Daniel Berrigan call us to trust and persevere in the Way of Jesus despite the overwhelming forces arrayed against this Way of nonviolent self-sacrificial love. When will the final victory come? Only God knows but the time to obey is now. In the video posted below, Daniel Berrigan reads one of his most famous poems called “Some.” May you and I be among those who continue to “stand” and “walk” for Jesus’ Way of peace and justice. Here is the text of the poem:
Some – By Father Daniel Berrigan
Some stood up once, and sat down.
Some walked a mile, and walked away.
Some stood up twice, then sat down.
“It’s too much,” they cried.
Some walked two miles, then walked away.
“I’ve had it,” they cried,
Some stood and stood and stood.
They were taken for fools,
they were taken for being taken in.
Some walked and walked and walked –
they walked the earth,
they walked the waters,
they walked the air.
“Why do you stand?” they were asked, and
“Why do you walk?”
“Because of the children,” they said, and
“Because of the heart, and
“Because of the bread,”
“Because the cause is
the heart’s beat, and
the children born, and
the risen bread.”