It is thus understood that nonviolence, for Christians, is not mere tactical behavior but a person’s way of being, the attitude of one who is convinced of God’s love and power, who is not afraid to confront evil with the weapons of love and truth alone. Loving the enemy is the nucleus of the “Christian revolution,” a revolution not based on strategies of economic, political or media power. The revolution of love, a love that does not base itself definitively in
human resources, but in the gift of God, that is obtained only and unreservedly in his merciful goodness. Herein lies the novelty of the Gospel, which changes the world without making noise.
….and a commentary on Pope Benedict’s address:
Revolution: Without Making a Noise
(Rev.) Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
This is one superbly crafted statement on the importance, indeed the centrality, of Jesus’ teaching of nonviolent love of friends and enemies, and on this being “the nucleus of the Christian revolution” and hence axial to a correct understanding of the Gospel. For those who spend the time with it that it deserves, it will be an illumination of a truth hidden or obscured, perhaps since their Baptism.
