The 'peace' the gospel brings is never the absence of conflict, but an ineffable divine reassurance within the heart of conflict; a peace that surpasses understanding.
Interpretation
True peace is found not in the absence of conflict, but in the presence of inner reassurance amidst turmoil.
Walter Wink's quote suggests that genuine peace is not merely about avoiding conflict; rather, it manifests as a profound sense of assurance and tranquility within oneβs heart even when facing challenges. It emphasizes that this inner peace transcends logical understanding, reflecting a deeper spiritual or emotional state that defies external circumstances.
In practice
During a meditation session focused on finding inner peace amidst life's challenges.
In 1989, thirteen nations comprising 1,695,000 people experienced nonviolent revolutions that succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations . . . If we add all the countries touched by major nonviolent actions in our century (the Philippines, South Africa . . . the independence movement in India . . .) the figure reaches 3,337,400,000, a staggering 65% of humanity! All this in the teeth of the assertion, endlessly repeated, that nonviolence doesn't work in the 'real' world.
Evil can be opposed without being mirrored. Oppressors can be resisted without being emulated. Enemies can be neutralized without being destroyed.
For," I said, "a murdered man or woman dies not in God's time, but in Man's. He... or she... is cut short before he... or she... can atone for sin, and so all errors must be forgiven. When you think of it that way, all murderers are a gateway for heaven.
Resistances do not derive from a few heterogeneous principles; but neither are they a lure or a promise that is of necessity betrayed. They are the odd term in relations of power; they are inscribed in the latter as an irreducible opposite.
It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.
God the Father, the supreme Architect, had already built this cosmic home we behold, the most sacred temple of His godhead, by the laws of His mysterious wisdom.
If the church marries herself to the spirit of the times, she will find herself a widow in the next generation.
The need is not to amputate the ego ... but to transcend it.
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