This contemplation of the eleventh chapter of the late Gospel of John begins, -The Gospels depict Jesus engaged in a mighty struggle against death. He came, he said, to give sight to the blind, freedom to the captive, liberation to the oppressed, good news to the poor - in each case calling people to the fullness of life and to victory over the powers of death and deadness. His was a life of boundless compassion, creative nonviolence, and universal love. As we know, in his struggle against the deathly empire of his time, he gave up his own life. Yet we also know that he was raised . . .) In this world of death and woe, he left us the promise that life yet holds a slight edge over death. There is a name for this triumph of life through loving nonviolence. We call it "resurrection."
We each need read this profound meditation upon our Faith in Life and Peace and Love and Nonviolence as our Advent reading this year, and so come forth to live in truth, integrally, the Gospel we profess, of nonviolence, of Life.
Those readers who have not seen the many other works by the great and Reverend Father John Dear SJ may find within this volume of about 177 pages may discover herein the culmination of his decades of dedicated ministry to our Church, practicing peace through direct nonviolent action courageously, in the footsteps of his brother Jesuit priest, the Reverend Father Daniel Berrigan, of the Catonsville Nine, author most recently of
The Kings and Their Gods: The Pathology of Power and of many other works of exegesis on the Old Testament in the light of our present condition, spiritual and political, as well as works of poetry. Read as well his famous
Night Flight to Hanoi: Daniel Berrigan's War Diary With Eleven Poems, the chronicle of his receiving in North Vietnam a group of US military prisoners of war in a gracious gesture by the North Vietnamese government.
The Reverend Father John Dear SJ has earlier written such well known works of our nonviolent and loving Faith as
Jean Donovan; The Call to Discipleship, and Oscar Romero and the Nonviolent Struggle for Justice. He has also produced his bildungsroman in the compelling
A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World, and several treatises on the nonviolent essence of our Faith like
Put Down Your Sword: Answering the Gospel Call to Creative Nonviolence. Read as well the necessary
Disarming the Heart: Toward a Vow of Nonviolence, and so very many more, a rich and fruitful harvest from a long life of service to our God of Peace, as God is Love.
This present work is divided into three sections, in good Jesuit style. The first part, called the Gospel of Life, brings a global perspective to the meaning of the Gospels as we learn to live them, as Father writes: The Kingdom of God is Life.
The second part meditates the meaning for us in these troubling times, of each line in this eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Saint John, through presenting the facts of the case engagingly as Father John does, as we who have sat in retreat with him well know.
The third part calls us forth, and sends us forth to live fully this Gospel of Life, called: Serving the Gospel of Life, instead of the culture of Death. One section of this third part unfolds the lives of three who have served this Gospel: an
Unsung Hero of the Great War: The Life and Witness of Ben Salmon,
Dorothy Day: Selected Writings; By Little and by Little, and the Blessed Monsenor Oscar Arnulfo
Romero: A Life. We read here of the Plot to Kill the Nonviolent Jesus; we here learn how we go about Washing Each Other's Feet, and we arrive at the meaningful envisioning of the Resurrection of the Nonviolent Jesus, here and now, in and through our lives.
A conclusion follows, and a few pages of questions for personal reflection and small group discussion, as this treatise clearly calls for the meditative method of lectio divina described a millenium and a half ago in the
The Rule of St. Benedict as well as for sharing openly in community.
Please read this book and gift it to all whom you love in this coming winter, that in spring we may arise fully alive in the Gospel of Life, in its nonviolent fullness.
