Lay Down Your Sword
There is a very telling scene in the plays of St Therese of Lisieux, where the angels come to adore the child Jesus in the manger. The last to come is that of the angel of the last judgment. He comes bringing a sword; Jesus tells him to lay it down:
THE ANGEL OF THE LAST JUDGMENT gets up.
Jesus, supreme beauty! have you forgotten
That sinners must be punished at the end? …
Have You forgotten, in Your extreme love
That the number of the impious is countless? ..
At the judgment, I shall punish crime.
I want to wipe out all the ungrateful
My sword is read!… Jesus, sweet victum!…
My sword is ready!! .. I’ll know how to avenge You!!!… (2x)
THE CHILD JESUS
O Beautiful angel! lay down your sword.
It is not for you to judge
The nature that I raise up.
And have desired to redeem.[1]
Jesus is the prince of peace. In this season of Christmas, let us remember Jesus came to lift us up, not to tear us down and have us taken in by the sword. Those who want to lift up weapons of violence to “avenge” Christ need to remember that Christ says vengeance is his – and his alone. It is not even for angels to bring judgment to the world. We who follow Christ, let us remember the little child, born in a manger, who took the lot of the poor as his own. He did not wish that any should perish. He came to save, not condemn. The sins of the world are taken by him and have been thrown into the depths of hell. He does not seek protection, he seeks love.
Do you know that faithful souls
Will console Me forever
For the blasphemies of the unfaithful
By a simple look of love? … .[2]
Lay down your sword, bow down and adore Christ today! It is love he seeks from you!
Troparion of the Feast Tone 4
Thy Nativity, O Christ our God,/ has shone to the world as the light of wisdom./ For by it those who worshipped the stars/ were taught by a star to adore Thee,/ the Sun of Righteousness,/ and to know Thee, the Orient from on high./ O Lord, glory to Thee.
Kontakion of the Synaxis Tone 6
He that was born before the morning star of Father without mother/ is today incarnate on earth of thee without father./ A star tells the glad tidings to the Magi;/ while Angels and Shepherds praise thy seedless childbirth, O thou who art full of grace.
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Thanks for this, Henry.
Several years ago I attended an apologetics conference at Steubenville. My friend Fr. Benedict Groeschel was one of the speakers. He began by telling the crowd that he had just come from the campus chapel, where he had stopped in to pray before his talk.
“I knelt down in front of the tabernacle and asked Christ for the courage and wisdom to defend him,” he said. Then, at the top of his voice Fr. Benedict shouted, “HOW ABSURD!” The crowd was shocked. He went on. “What absurd and sinful pride! We don’t defend Christ. Christ defends us! The Holy Spirit defends us! And we should never forget that.”
It was a deeply important and unusual admonition to many attendees, including me, who took great pride in our ‘orthodoxy,’ who viewed apologetics as intellectual combat against the ‘enemies’ of Christ and his Church, setting aside the words of 1 Peter 3:15,16: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience …”
Thanks.
I know many people who have connections with Fr. Groeschel. He’s influenced and helped many. I’m glad he was able to help people see the truth of this — and I know many, many more will in the future. It is indeed something we need to remember. What I liked best was how St Therese said what best helps is love. That really says it all to me.
This post speaks to me own experience and struggle. I was a champion debater in high school, I also prided myself on my ability to “defend the Church” through apologetics. I used to even think of my vocation as an apologist, to go around “fighting for Christ and the Church.” My impulse then, and even now, was not what it seemed to be. It was rooted in fear and pride and hid a deep, secret uncertainty. I have now given up what I call the “Catholic Answers” approach to my faith. It has given me a great deal of true freedom and peace. Thanks,
Sam
I think it is a struggle for many of us; and even when we realize it, we still end up getting defensive from time to time. It’s important for all of us, indeed.
Humility is the key to holiness!
“The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility. Humility is endless.” – T.S. Eliot
Henry,
Another great one from you. I think I recently saw online that you live in DC and study at CUA. Can you take a copy this post and nail it on the door of the USCCB headquarters behind DC. I think they could use a reminder of such things. Of course someone might contend that the Counter-Reformation spirit of the Catholic Church might get in the way. But there is always time for conversion.
Thanks.
Though I don’t live in DC anymore.
Henry,
Oh too bad. I never get over that way to Brookland. The Shrine offends my aesthetic sensibilities anyways, too Mussolini-esque. The opposite of humility.
When I read the title / header for this post, I was immediately fascinated. These words of Jesus to the Apostle Peter on the Mount of Olives, outside the Gates of Jerusalem in the Garden of Gethsemane: – “Lay down your sword” -: these very words have had a profound and incremental impact in my life and spiritual journey, particularly over the last ten years since the pivotal day of September 11, 2001.
Last July, I spent a couple of hours in that Garden of Gethsemane on the sloping mountain hillside overlooking the Holy City of Jerusalem. I met there with a small group of Justice & Peace pilgrims & friends who were staying at Ecce Homo Convent, for an afternoon period of Gospel reflection led by our director Father Bob Holmes, CSB.
Then, in silence I meandered around and through the garden for some time of solitary prayer and communion with the place of the Agony in the Garden and it’s historic role in God’s plan of universal salvation.
Back then in July, and again just during this moment in December, here on the Feast of St. Stephen first martyr, following the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord, I read these words in the post by Henry and I was drawn like a magnet to these words of Jesus to Peter.
At first, I figured this post must have something or other to do with Father John Dear SJ, who has written a book with this very text as its title.
As you know, John has covered our North American continent for thirty years now, giving retreats & conferences in the U.S.A. & Canada on Christian Nonviolence and Peacemaking.
Much of his passionate personal struggle for a nonviolent world began with a retreat at the Mount of Beatitudes in 1982.
What a delightful surprise to discover that this was drawn from the plays of St. Therese of Lisieux, with angels coming to adore the child Jesus in the manger.
From the beginning of his earthly life to the last days and his final hour on a hillside outside the gates of Jerusalem where he breathed his last , Jesus is disarming us with an invitation to begin and live each day a new way of life, not with weapons but with sincere compassion and nonviolent love towards all, even to love of our enemy.
That was one of the things I found fascinating as well– St Therese uses the words of Jesus to Peter and shows they go also to the angels themselves. This has all kinds of implications. Clearly not just the Angel of the Last Judgment, but all angels, had their swords stand down – so he could follow through with his mission, the mission of the cross. This is how we are to understand Jesus saying he could summon legions of angels. They were told to stand down, just as Peter was. But I thought it appropriate that we celebrate the birth of the king of peace and see St Therese saw it meant, as you said, that Jesus disarms us and everyone from the manger!
And yes, I did think people would draw the Petrine connection. It says so much that the Church is called from the get go to stand down, just as St Therese shows the angels were.
John Dear understands this text as the final definitive (and thus directive) statement of the will of Jesus, addressed to the Twelve Apostles and to his Church through Peter, just before he goes to his saving death on Calvary. The fact that this is a command of nonviolence by our Saviour has yet to be fully understood and implemented.
A great deal of hermeneutic discussion and dialog can and should be occurring around this text in our current period of salvation history.
Today’s liturgical Feast of St. Stephen is an extremely rich and opportune moment to introduce this discussion of nonviolence here in Vox Nova.
The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and his saving death as well as the death of our Christian martyrs is one and the same tradition of the mystery of birth and death leading to new life.
The self-emptying “kenosis” of God as an infant lying in the manger of Bethlehem links this time of year also with the Holy Innocents, martyrs as well as St. Thomas a Becket’s murder in the cathedral at Canterbury.
In another few days, we celebrate January 1st as the World Day of Prayer for Peace on the Feast of Mary the Mother of God. We have much to comprehend about this theme of the glory of God, and its connection with nonviolent love & peace on earth.
Let us proceed in peace.