John 12:20-33

THE TRUTH ABOUT VIOLENCE

I recently went to the Merrigong Theatre (Wollongong, New South Wales) to see the play ‘The Boys’. The relationships in the story, whether between men and women, between men and other men, or between parent and child are dominated by violence which continually plays itself out as a never ending cycle of violence. Can the cycle of violence be broken?

If we violently oppose violence we inevitably play its game and violence will always win. On the other hand if we do not oppose violence, if we keep quiet, if we do not speak up, if we do not protest, if we do not act, then we will be colluding with violence. We become accustomed to it. It becomes part of our lives, part of the community, part of how society and the systems within society operate. Violence has a way of suppressing the truth about itself, of hiding it away.  It dominates relationships, economics, politics, religion and even the church.

Jean-Michel Oughourlian says, ‘… the task of revealing the truth about violence requires a… person… who is not obliged to violence for anything and does not think in terms of violence – someone who is capable of talking back to violence while remaining entirely untouched by it (p.218)’. Rather than using violence or confronting violence Jesus exposes the truth about violence by taking the place of the victim and in doing so rises above the violence that had dominated the world.

Jesus says, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth (on the cross) will draw all people to myself.’ John 12:33

The period of Lent offers us a time to reflect upon the truth about violence and how Jesus offers a way to expose it.

My reflections on violence used in this article were mainly drawn from the book ‘Things hidden since the foundation of the world’ by Rene Girard, Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort.