Episcopal priest Adam Bucko offers encouragement for action and contemplation amid circumstances of systemic injustice:
That is the heart of the challenge—what do we believe? What is our ground? What narratives have shaped us and are shaping us? We must have the clarity to name evil for what it is, yet without losing ourselves in othering, understanding that in some way or form, we are part of what we are naming. We must engage not just with what’s out there but with what’s within us as well. History is filled with revolutions that promised liberation only to replicate the cruelty they overthrew. Justice movements have struggled against the pull of ego. Institutions built to resist oppression have, over time, become oppressive themselves.
Jesus called his disciples to be fishers of people—to be caught up in love and drawn out of the world’s illusions. Have we been caught? Have we been pulled out of a system that thrives on violence, on stepping over others to climb higher? Or are we still trapped in it, confused and disoriented?
If we have been pulled out, then we must see clearly. We must commit to both inner and outer work. We must say no to violence, no to greed, no to power that exploits and destroys. And we must do it even when it costs us—because that is what it means to live in truth. That is what it means to allow ourselves to be caught in the net of love.
Returning to the gospel and tending to our spiritual lives are essential practices in times of crisis and unknowing:
It may not be in our power to determine how things will unfold, but it is in our power to decide how we respond. It is in our power to hold on to the practices that nourish us, inform us, and give us courage. It is in our power to remain in integrity, to choose nonviolence and noncooperation in the face of all the violence we are already seeing.
Jesus was clear: Love always. Bless those who persecute you. Forgive even the unforgivable. Turn the other cheek, not in surrender but in defiance of violence. Do not repay evil with evil, but overcome evil with good. This may not change the world, but sometimes it is important to do things simply because they are the right things to do. In the end, all we have is our integrity. So let us stand in it, grounded in the One who renews us each moment and calls us to a nonviolent witness of love—one that is big enough to hold both our friends and our oppressors, knowing that love endures beyond violence.
Reference:
Adam Bucko, “This Demands a Response: A Call to Spiritual Defiance,” Contemplative Witness with Adam Bucko (Substack newsletter), February 14, 2025. Used with permission.
Image credit and inspiration: Paul Tyreman, Untitled (detail), 2018, photo, United Kingdom, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. We walk forward on our own pathway through the sand and stones, aligned and inspired by Spirit.
Story from Our Community:
I’m a gay Catholic. I only go to mass rarely now, but when I do, I often receive communion as an act of defiance against the institution with a long history of persecuting those who don’t live within its narrow boundaries. If the church knew about me, it would lock its doors to keep me from taking the sacrament. But as far as I see it, Jesus gave us the sacrament long before a church existed. I go to receive Jesus. Everything else pales in comparison.
—Gary G.
