Too often, in families and workplaces, violence goes unchallenged. In the worst cases, people of faith advise one another to go back into violent and unsafe spaces to “keep the peace” or as part of the “sacrifice” demanded by one’s vocation. In the second reading, Paul challenges his followers to receive Jesus’ powerful flame: “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and love and self-control.” Our God worked eternal salvation for all of us out of His Son’s vicious murder, but that does not make crucifixion any less evil. There is a crisis of domestic abuse in our country, a destructive legacy of sexual abuse in our Church, and we must speak out against it at all times and in all places, asking God to rebuild the destruction with new life.
For the courage, power, love and self-control to end violence in our hearts, families and communities, we pray to the Lord.
Crucified Jesus, be with us in our suffering and breathe your power into all the violence we witness and encounter. Show us how to stand up to violence with power, love, and self-control, working diligently towards deep peaceful solutions to the conflict in our hearts, homes and world. Amen.
(Taken from the Facebook page of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary)
