Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.
Interpretation
Violence often stems from the belief that life is something to be owned rather than collectively experienced.
In this quote, Henri Nouwen emphasizes that much of the violence we see in the world arises from a misguided perspective that life and its resources are personal possessions to be safeguarded. Instead, he argues that life should be viewed as a shared experience that fosters community and mutual support, suggesting that when we prioritize ownership and defense over sharing and collaboration, conflict and violence inevitably follow.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about conflict resolution.
The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.
The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before....our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering β for us. And calling us to share in Godβs suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.
To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, welcome, to accept.
Waiting is a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. (Finding My Way Home)
Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.
Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves. Free choice among a wide variety of goods and services does not signify freedom if these goods and services sustain social controls over a life of toil and fear β that is, if they sustain alienation. And the spontaneous reproduction of superimposed needs by the individual does not establish autonomy; it only testifies to the efficacy of the controls.
Religion and practical life are not different. To take sanyas (renunciation) is not to abandon life. The real spirit is to make the country, your family, work together instead of working only for your own. The step beyond is to serve humanity and the next step is to serve God.
And there lies the horror: the past we remember is devoid of time. Impossible to reexperience a love the way we reread a book or resee a film.
It's a cruel season that makes you get ready for bed while it's light out.
One certainty we all accept is the condition of being uncertain and insecure.
We are the species who cooks. No other species cooks. And when we learned to cook, we became truly human.
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