Jesus Taught Active Nonviolence

Interpreting Jesus of Nazareth Pope Benedict XIV (Joseph Ratzinger) in his Good Friday Sermon of 2011 concluded that Jesus was always a man of peace. It could be expected that, when God came to earth, He would be a person of great power, destroying the opposing forces, that He would be a man of powerful violence as an instrument of peace. On the contrary, He came in weakness. He came with only the strength of love, totally without violence, even to the point of going to the cross. This is what shows us the true image of God – a non-violent deity. How then can one be violent and claim to come from God? Violence never comes from God; never helps bring anything good; it is a destructive means and not the path to escape difficulties. The only path for those born of this Deity is to renounce violence, to begin anew with dialogue, with the attempt to find peace together, with a new concern for one another, a new willingness to be open to one another. Jesus of Nazareth’s true message is to seek peace with the means of peace. It is not different from what the father of peace studies – Johan Galtung – teaches us when he talks of peace through peaceful means.