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blue bits. red rocks.
Tuesday 28 July 2009

A member of my family has recently been a victim of a violent crime. All of a sudden the ground opens up and everything I have ever believed or thought I knew comes into the sharpest focus. The theoretical debates on the Catholic blogosphere about just violence versus pacifism are no longer theory to me. As my family attempts to comprehend what has happened, and sift through the overwhelming emotions that occurs when an innocent person suffers from someone else’s evil choice, my Faith is no longer intellectual. It is a Faith that calls me to embody the very words of Scripture. I believe that the reason most of us have yearned for a path of “just violence” is for one reason only. We hate pain. Pain can come from being the innocent receiver of violence, or for me and most of my family members, the pain comes from watching an innocent suffer. Both types of pain are excruciating. The pain can so overwhelm that one finds that breathing, eating, sleeping, living a full life utterly impossible. Emotional and spiritual pain causes physical pain. I find that my body can barely move because of weeks of tight, clenched muscles. I Can’t Find the Exception Clause

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