Listen

He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Think

Hurt people hurt people. It is a truth that many in helping professions know well. And it’s what we see playing out with horrific enormity in the Holy Land right now: over decades and through generations, people who have been desperately hurt by some let that trauma play out in their relationships with others, inflicting more pain and trauma, leading to even more hurt. And the awful cycle goes on and on, until we are blind to anything other than a need for vengeance and the hunger for blood.

But the God of Abraham calls us to a different way: “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with [our] God.” Justice and mercy are not oppositional here. It is possible, necessary, even, to act justly and to love others mercifully at the same time. But doing so takes both courage and humility – the powerful combination of attributes that Christians see in Jesus on the cross.

It may be that violence and trauma in the Holy Land will cease only when those in power learn to metabolize all the pain that has been wrought upon them and act not from a place of vengeance and anger but with the courage and humility that are the fruits of justice and mercy. The same is true for you and me in how we treat each other. May it be so, Lord.

Leyla King

Question to Ponder:

Think of a time when you have been hurt by someone. Were you able to refrain from lashing out in anger to satisfy your pain? If so, what helped you do that? If not, what might have helped? What can we learn from even these individual experiences to stop cycles of violence and trauma?

Pray

God of Righteousness and Love, teach us your ways of mercy and justice, that all whose lives have been forever marked by suffering may be blessed with the hope of your presence and learn to walk humbly with you into a world free of pain.

Amen.

Go

Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.

Pope Francis