A Third Way of Observing Non-Violent Resistance: Mt. 5:38-42

John Dear reflected back in 2007 on the Sermon on the Mount text (Mt. 5: 38-42) in the light Walter Wink’s interpretation of Jesus' teachings on nonviolent resistance:

“You have heard, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' but I say, Offer no violent resistance to one who does evil.”

…But does that mean sit back, be passive, and suffer violence? No! The world tells us there are only two options in the face of violence: fight back with violence or run away and do nothing. But Wink explains how Jesus offers a third alternative, "a third way": active nonviolence resistance.

Illustration courtesy of Dave Maynard https://bsssb-llc.com/turn-the-other-cheek/

Since the beginning of Lent this year, I’ve been reading the scripture texts for each weekday and continued that practice from then on to Trinity Sunday and beyond. On the Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time (June 15th), we hear the Gospel segment of the Sermon on the Mount from Mt. 5 recounting the message about the other cheek, the cloak and the extra mile—but seldom do we hear in homilies the revolutionary injunction behind these words of that groundbreaking sermon. Wink says it this way:

Just on the grounds of sheer originality, the examples of unarmed direct action in Matt. 5:39-41 would appear to have originated with Jesus. No one, not only in the first century but in all of human history, ever advocated defiance of oppressors by turning the cheek, stripping oneself naked in court, or jeopardizing a soldier by carrying his pack a second mile. For three centuries, the early church observed Jesus' command to nonviolence. But nowhere in the early church, to say nothing of the early fathers, do we find statements similar to these in their humor and originality. These sayings are, in fact, so radical, so unprecedented, and so threatening, that it has taken all these centuries just to begin to grasp their implications. 

I know that I heard this, as it's described here, in a presentation by Dear at a Call To Action Conference some years ago, but never in a homily in any parish. 

John Dear originally offered this message in the historical context of the Bush “rush-to-war” on Iraq. But today’s demonstrations—be they promoting justice for Blacks or for the Undocumented—might well take this text and its revolutionary counsel to heart.

Rather than reviewing the commentary by John Dear in summary form, I recommend clicking on the citation to access the article for a reading (or for some, a re-reading) as it appeared in the National Catholic Reporter, July 10, 2007.

Nostalgia for An Army of Youth Flying the Standards of Truth While Seeking Peace

My brother Tom is a raconteur of sorts and, in his 80s like I am, he’s remembering things from his earlier years more vividly than where he left his glasses. On a visit a while back, something caused him to remember the words to the Catholic Action Song from his years at St.Thomas High School in Rockford.

It’s a rousing piece composed by Father Daniel Lord, S.J. (pictured) back in 1932. Newly ordained in 1923, He'd  reluctantly accepted the task of revivifying the Jesuit-led Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He came to the conclusion that the new name of Student Catholic Action was needed. His creativity led him to draft a theme song—The Catholic Action Hymn.

Tom was able to break out in song and remembered most of the words so well, he proved the saying “Long term memory is the last to go.”

Chorus:
An army of youth flying the standards of truth,
We’re fighting for Christ, our Lord.
Heads lifted high, Christian action our cry,
And God’s word our only sword.
On earth’s battlefield never a vantage we’ll yield
As dauntlessly on we sing.
Christians true, dare and do ’neath the King’s white and blue,
For our God, for our faith, for Christ the King.

Christ lifts His hands; the King commands;
His challenge, “Come and follow Me.”
From every side, With eager stride,
We form in the lines of victory.
Let foe-men lurk, and laggards shirk,
We throw our fortunes with the Lord,
God’s own son, till the world is won.
We have pledged you our loyal word.

Chorus

Our hearts are pure, our minds are sure;

No sin our gleaming helmet taints.

No foe-man fierce our shield shall pierce;

We’re captained by God’s unconquered Son.

Yet peace we bring, and a gentle King,

Whose law is light and life and love?

God’s own son, may thy will be done

Here on earth as it is above.

Chorus

Daniel Lord, S.J. The Queen’s Work, St. Louis, MO © 1932

It’s interesting to note how the words of this rally cry shows up in various works.

An autobiographical remembrance of the CSA in the Philippines in 2011 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary, the Diamond Jubilee, of Student Catholic Action (SCA) recalls the impact of the organization and its theme song.

On page 125 of the David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America, the author has the song as background to a fictional comic book burning. 

What’s particularly interesting is that most of us who remember the song know little or nothing of the life of its composer. The 2005 article about Daniel Lord writes 55 years after his death is linked above. It indicates some of the criticism Lord received from his Jesuit confreres and other for his popularizing approach to the serious work of education. But also catalogued are the volumes of works he wrote capturing the imagination of young people. His works taken as a whole sold 25 million copies by the 1960s.

The military imagery the song doesn’t click with kids today, but in our day of growing up in the 1940s and 50s the song’s “jaunty march tune and lofty sentiments about duty, honor and devotion made it a hit with its intended youth audience.” 

That militaristic terminology of the past has yielded to a concept of the Church that recognizes that

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. [Gaudium et Spes §1] 

Today those confirmed are no longer spoken of soldiers of Christ, but as receiving the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence.…filling them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence through a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost [Catechism of the Catholic Church §. 1299 & 1302]. 

Welcome change for advocates for social justice and peace!

Perhaps the idealistic phrase of the first line’s “flying the banner of truth” still calls to all of us in our day to avoid being taken in by Barnum-esque peddlers of half truths and lies.

And the nostalgia that warms the heart of my brother and so many others looking back to former times will keep us remembering the song that captured our imagination during those younger days when we needed the kind of idealism expressed in the words of the song of that time long ago.