An excerpt about violence from what is a timely word written in this age of seemingly growing gun violence in our world:
Violence is the moment of rage when a lingering trust in physical or technological force floods the imagination with an apparently instant solution to an otherwise paralyzing powerlessness and fear. It is a desperate attempt to assert short-term physical control in a situation that is psychologically out of control. In a spiritual sense, violence is a profound forgetting. It is a forgetting of the past-that I have been created for a purpose by a God who wholly knows me and at the same time wondrously, wholly loves me. It is a forgetting of the present-that I am a child of God, that those around me are my brothers and sisters, also created, known and loved by God. And it is a forgetting of the future-that God is drawing all things together into a profound and peacable unity, where there is a place for everyone in a harmony of God's composing.
How might we describe the opposite of violence? Like this: "Love me, so that I may love you, so that we may love one another." That's our purpose, that's why we were created, that's the ticket to profound peace." The peace of God resides in belonging, in knowing that we belong to all things, to all people, and that is our purpose. We were created to love.
If gun violence were more visible, this psychological problem, the sense of rage and powerlessness and fear, would have to be owned and addressed by everyone. But the wider society has reached a consensus around two incompatible convictions. One is that those with this psychological problem are a tiny minority, and they can be disregarded by the majority of the population because they are assumed to be of a specific class and race other than the majority's own- and thus assigned to a category that is "not us".
The other conviction is that we all, nonetheless, need a gun. During her many years of involvement with the problem of gun violence, Marcia has seen over and over how and why people say, "I need a gun. By asking me to disarm, you are putting me at risk." But having a gun is not a solution. We have gone so far from Christ's teachings that we see ourselves as being separate from one another. One way not to have a problem is to deny the problem by saying, "It's not my problem. I have a house, and I'm going to get a security system, and I'm going to get a weapon, so that I'm ready to kill someone"- a person who is in reality my brother or sister-"so that I can save my life." So, what in us makes us reluctant to call gun violence our problem? Fear, and a forgetting of our soul.
(pp. 51-52)
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