Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from February, 2025

Creative Nonviolence

St. Agnes Catholic Church 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022325.cfm Good evening / morning, St. Agnes. Among the Native Americans of the Great Plains, warriors would demonstrate their bravery through a practice called “counting coup.” This test of courage involved riding or running up to an enemy and touching or striking him with a hand and then retreating from danger. This act won prestige for a warrior, which could be recorded on a coup stick decorated with notches and feathers. It could also persuade and enemy to admit defeat without inflicting lasting violence on him besides injuring his pride. This form of ritual warfare was a creative way to resolve conflict among communities without engaging in devastating battles that ended in death and disability. I think about this practice when reading both our first reading and Jesus’ instruction in the Gospel to “love your enemies and do good to them.” In the first reading, David, the charismatic w...