Nonviolence Resource Center

What would Christianity or the Church mean for the Christian if Jesus’ Way or teachings were made subject to, or were measured for correctness by whether Plato, Hugh Hefner, or the local emperor happen to agree with them? Since for the Christian Jesus is the Word of God, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Self-revelation of God: “The one who sees me sees the Father” (JN 14:9), since for the Christian He is “the Way and the Truth and the Life” (JN 14:6), it is senseless to maintain that the Christian life can ultimately be modeled on anyone or anything except Jesus. Even the saints must be measured against Jesus and His teachings to determine what in their lives is worthy of Christian honor and what is not.

The Eucharist is not only a mystery to consecrate, to receive, to contemplate and adore. It is also a mystery to imitate.

—Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M.Cap.

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Recently the Catholic Church held a Synod of the World's Catholic Bishops in Rome (October 2-23, 2005). A World Synod is not an Ecumenical Council, but it is the most serious gathering of bishops short of that. Bishops are selected for it by their fellow bishops in a geographical area and some are designated to be there by the Pope. A Synod can deal with many topics or just one topic. In the case of the recent Synod the only topic it dealt with was the Eucharist. In this particular Synod each official participant was allowed one presentation to the Synod. The Eucharist, Sacrament of Nonviolence, is the presentation given to the Synod by Archbishop Cyril S. Bustros, a Papal designee.

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The Sermon, Eucharist Is "God's Absolute 'No' to Violence," was the third in a series of weekly Lenten meditations delivered by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher to the Papal Household. In the sermon he states that "Christ defeated violence, not by opposing it with greater violence, but suffering it and laying bare all its injustice and uselessness." He also affirms that, "The Eucharist is the sacrament of non-violence."

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The Nonviolent Love of Jesus for both friends and enemies is historically at the heart of His passion and death, it must therefore be communicated as being ineradicably at the heart of the Eucharist...The passion narrative is about the Lamb of God, who goes to His death rejecting violence, loving enemies, returning good for evil, praying for His persecutors-yet conquers and reigns eternal...The sacrifice of Christ is not about salvation through mere physiological pain. It is about salvation through the Nonviolent Suffering Love of Jesus toward all and for all, even lethal enemies. It is about revealing the true nature of Divine love, the true and authentic Face of God. As the United States Catholic Bishops teach in their Pastoral, The Challenge of Peace (1983):

In all of his suffering, as in all of his life and ministry, Jesus refused to defend himself with force or with violence. He endured violence and cruelty so that God's love might be fully manifest and the world might be reconciled to the One from whom it had become estranged.

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