1157: Friday, May 19, 2023

What we are trying to do is to stand against the culture’s anti-gospel and anti-beatitudes and instead follow the nonviolent Jesus

From John Dear: Dear friends, Blessings of Christ’s peace

If we listen to the culture of violence around us, we hear an anti-gospel calling us to support war, racism, gun violence, greed, and fascism. It begins with its own mockery of the Beatitudes, which I call “the anti-beatitudes:” “Blessed are the rich, those who never mourn, the violent and domineering, those who hunger and thirst for injustice, those who show no mercy, the unclean of heart, whose hearts are full of hatred.” “Blessed are the warmakers,” it proclaims, and those who don’t rock the boat. The reign of this world is ours! (from my book, The Beatitudes of Peace)

What we are trying to do is to stand against the culture’s anti-gospel and anti-beatitudes and instead follow the nonviolent Jesus and practice his teachings of universal love, compassion and peace, beginning with his Beatitudes and his Sermon on the mount. (Mt. 5-7)

One way to encourage each other on this Gospel journey is simply to share our stories with one another, and how we have tried to live the Gospel and the Beatitudes. That’s why I invited my friend Frank Cordaro to share with us his amazing life journey of solidarity with the poor and resistance to the culture of violence and war.

Frank Cordaro is the cofounder of the Philip Berrigan Catholic Worker community in Des Moines, Iowa. Begun in 1976, it is an ecumenical, interfaith, nonviolent, anarchist, intentional peacemaking community living in voluntary poverty which serves the poor and needy. He has spent six years in prison for nonviolent civil disobedience against war.

Join us on June 3rd as Frank reflects with us on “Following the Nonviolent Jesus in a ‘pro rich, pro war, pro US empire’ church." To register, visit www.beatitudescenter.org.

The program will begin 11am Pacific/ 12pm Mountain/ 1pm Central/ 2pm Eastern time. You will receive the zoom link a few days beforehand, so be on the lookout!, and a recording link afterwards. If you have questions, email Kassandra at beatitudescentermb@gmail.com.

See you then!-- Fr. John

PS. And don’t miss, on June 17th, Larry Rasmussen, perhaps the first environmental theologian, on his latest book and on June 24th, Bill McKibben, perhaps the first person to write about climate change, one of the leading environmental authors and activists in the world!