What is the opposite of violence? Peace, ceasefire, love, truce – the list could go on. The best answer I ever came across was that the opposite to violence is ‘wonder and awe’. To be honest, when I first read this I was a tad dismissive but then I thought about it.
To carry out an intentional act of violence against a person, you need to see an aspect of that person that you can despise: it makes the violent act easier to commit. The idea of the Officer’s Mess in the army is that the officer will have certain emotional distance from the foot soldier making it easier to give the command to approach enemy lines. And this is for their own soldiers; what must the perceptions of the enemy be?
To see a uniform, skin colour, class, religion or politics to the neglect of the person who bears these characteristics makes it easier to commit a violent action against them. Seeing the beauty of another and holding on to that beauty and uniqueness with a sense of wonder and awe makes it infinitely more difficult to commit an act of violence. Furthermore, to hold onto the magnificence of one’s own being with a sense of wonder and awe greatly reduces the risk of doing violence to oneself.
Maybe it is no accident that ‘wonder and awe’ is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The first novena that ever took place was the time spent by the followers of Jesus between Easter and Pentecost waiting for something to happen. This year pray for this gift between Easter and Pentecost and pray that today’s humanity will come to hold their brothers and sisters with a sense of ‘wonder and awe’ thus banishing violence.
There is no dichotomy between man and God’s image. Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being, abuses God’s image. – Blessed Archbishop Oscar Romero