Faith Meets Life: A conspiracy to cure gift fatigue
This past eight months has seen its share
of stresses. There have been the usuals
such as computer viruses and disappointments
in the classroom and chatroom.
Outside of the college walls there have been rumblings of greater issues. The poor continue to walk the streets of London and not a few other spots. And, not that anyone needs much reminding about this, there's a lot of violence out there. Violence in Iraq and Mexico. Violence in homes — maybe in your home or apartment. Violence in digital games, on CSI and in the martial arts ring. Violence on the professional hockey rink (though not on the Olympic rink). Verbal violence in parliament and violence against the environment.
The latter is likely to get worse as the population grows and our industries ramp up out of the recession. It's not sustainable but we make our peace with it because we can't seem to imagine a different way. In fact, we make our peace with many forms of violence.
We can choose to feed our appetite for violence by absorbing ourselves in bloody games and gruesome entertainments such as the show, A Thousand Ways to Die. Or we can do something different. We can feed aggression in the business world and in the “development” (read “depletion”) of our planet. Or we can do something different.
The question I am raising is this: Is it necessary or responsible to accept so many expressions of violence?
For this last column of the year, my attention again is on a short book called Living Gently in a Violent World (2008, IV Press). One of the authors is Jean Vanier, founder of the L'Arche communities around the world. In these communities mentally well and unwell live together, not as staff and clients, but as members of one community where both learn from the other.
Vanier and co-author Stanley Hauerwas are inspired by the teachings of Jesus. According to the Christian Bible, Jesus frequently taught and modeled the importance of living gently. We read that he looked at the crowds of people who followed him and that he “had compassion” and therefore fed, taught and healed many.
Jesus' immediate followers wrote many words to say how life should be lived. They taught that God calls all people to renounce bitterness, envy, slander, brawling and related forms of violence, and to embrace a way of life marked by gentleness.
Nietzsche, a fierce critic of Christianity, wrote that such thinking produces weaklings. But I wonder if he and other likeminded critics ever tried to live gently. It is not easy to swim upstream against the violence of our time. It takes strength and produces strong people.
What would it mean to be a realtor or a commodities trader and to infuse one's work with gentleness? What would it mean to be the leader of a country, a family clan, a village or a social network and to lead with gentleness rather than aggression? What could it mean to be a team leader in a plant or office and respond to people with gentleness? What would it mean to act gently towards a marriage partner or a sibling, or to act gently towards other relatives?
Many of us will soon have some time to read on the beach or elsewhere. Usually we like to read stories that affirm what we already like or know; comfort food for the soul, and some of that is no doubt ok. But in my experience, God means to challenge our well-worn life narratives and comfortable ways.
Living for myself, using whatever skills I have to further my own interests, and perhaps, if time and circumstances allow, to help the occasional other person with some gentle act — that approach to life has its charms. However, maybe we are all called by God to aim for something greater: a way of life consistently marked by gentleness as part of our overall response to God, to other persons and to the created world that is our home. God bless you this summer.
Michael Veenema was a chaplain at the college till 2004 and continues to write. The title for this article is adapted from the opening line of the Dylan Thomas poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night.”
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
Outside of the college walls there have been rumblings of greater issues. The poor continue to walk the streets of London and not a few other spots. And, not that anyone needs much reminding about this, there's a lot of violence out there. Violence in Iraq and Mexico. Violence in homes — maybe in your home or apartment. Violence in digital games, on CSI and in the martial arts ring. Violence on the professional hockey rink (though not on the Olympic rink). Verbal violence in parliament and violence against the environment.
The latter is likely to get worse as the population grows and our industries ramp up out of the recession. It's not sustainable but we make our peace with it because we can't seem to imagine a different way. In fact, we make our peace with many forms of violence.
We can choose to feed our appetite for violence by absorbing ourselves in bloody games and gruesome entertainments such as the show, A Thousand Ways to Die. Or we can do something different. We can feed aggression in the business world and in the “development” (read “depletion”) of our planet. Or we can do something different.
The question I am raising is this: Is it necessary or responsible to accept so many expressions of violence?
For this last column of the year, my attention again is on a short book called Living Gently in a Violent World (2008, IV Press). One of the authors is Jean Vanier, founder of the L'Arche communities around the world. In these communities mentally well and unwell live together, not as staff and clients, but as members of one community where both learn from the other.
Vanier and co-author Stanley Hauerwas are inspired by the teachings of Jesus. According to the Christian Bible, Jesus frequently taught and modeled the importance of living gently. We read that he looked at the crowds of people who followed him and that he “had compassion” and therefore fed, taught and healed many.
Jesus' immediate followers wrote many words to say how life should be lived. They taught that God calls all people to renounce bitterness, envy, slander, brawling and related forms of violence, and to embrace a way of life marked by gentleness.
Nietzsche, a fierce critic of Christianity, wrote that such thinking produces weaklings. But I wonder if he and other likeminded critics ever tried to live gently. It is not easy to swim upstream against the violence of our time. It takes strength and produces strong people.
What would it mean to be a realtor or a commodities trader and to infuse one's work with gentleness? What would it mean to be the leader of a country, a family clan, a village or a social network and to lead with gentleness rather than aggression? What could it mean to be a team leader in a plant or office and respond to people with gentleness? What would it mean to act gently towards a marriage partner or a sibling, or to act gently towards other relatives?
Many of us will soon have some time to read on the beach or elsewhere. Usually we like to read stories that affirm what we already like or know; comfort food for the soul, and some of that is no doubt ok. But in my experience, God means to challenge our well-worn life narratives and comfortable ways.
Living for myself, using whatever skills I have to further my own interests, and perhaps, if time and circumstances allow, to help the occasional other person with some gentle act — that approach to life has its charms. However, maybe we are all called by God to aim for something greater: a way of life consistently marked by gentleness as part of our overall response to God, to other persons and to the created world that is our home. God bless you this summer.
Michael Veenema was a chaplain at the college till 2004 and continues to write. The title for this article is adapted from the opening line of the Dylan Thomas poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night.”
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
