So many things have been happening to disciples in a short number of days. They shared a festive meal but it was followed soon after by Jesus’ arrest. Amidst that chaos and pain an ear is severed, but then healed. A night of anguish is endured which is then followed by a day of torture and horrible death. Amidst that chaos and pain too, healing; Jesus’ Resurrection. So much has been happening to the disciples. Is it possible for disciples to start making things happen? Is their number or energy enough for them to keep making Jesus’ Way happen? Jesus offers Ascending advice. He tells them to “stay together in prayer” until they are stirred “with power from on high.”
So many things were happening amidst the chaos and pain of the U.S. Empire and its senseless wars. A small group of disciples, nine, that included Daniel Berrigan, stayed together in prayer until they were stirred with power from high. Moved by the Spirit they started making Jesus’ Way happen. In May of 1968 they took 378 1-A draft files from a Catonsville, Ohio, Selective Service office and burned them with napalm. Their peace witness galvanized a peace movement that helped bring an end to the war in Vietnam. So many things were happening amidst the chaos and pain of an endless arms race. Moved by the Spirit, a small group of prayerful disciples, eight, that again included Daniel Berrigan, made their way into a nuclear weapons facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. They struck hammers against the steel and poured blood onto documents and files. They generated a new peace movement; the Plowshares (from Isaiah 2:4 “They shall beat their swords into plowshares.”). The movement is continuing to see its actions replicated across the world. So many things have been happening amidst the chaos and pain of a culture of death. Stirred with a power from on high, a small group of prayerful disciples, five, that once more included Daniel Berrigan, were moved by the Spirit to block access to two death facilities; one was a federal prison executing people on death row, the other a Planned Parenthood clinic. They gave witness to the growing pro-life movement known as the Seamless Garment Network and Consistent Ethic of Life.
Throughout the history of peacemakers considering divine obedience / civil disobedience they stay together in prayer. They heed the movement of the Spirit because as Daniel Berrigan understood: “It is very rare to sustain a movement in recognizable form without a spiritual base.” Berrigan and his friends, you and I, and all peacemakers are part of a movement. It is a thriving resilient movement led by the Spirit.
Prayer: Spirit, we are inspired to renew the face of the earth.
Question: Am I part of a group of people inspired to make peace happen or do I need to start such a group?
May 8, 2016 Gospel Luke 24:46-53 Ascension