this recording of Rabbi Irwin Kula chanting the messages left for loved ones by those who were in the Twin Towers.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nI\u2019ve rarely encountered anything as raw, devastating, and beautiful. I usually don\u2019t make it through the whole thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Grief Monster<\/h2>\n\n\n\n The death of a loved one can cause us to sideline all the shit we usually focus on that doesn\u2019t really matter in any spiritually meaningful way – things like petty resentments, snotty opinions, making sure our preferences are always met, vanity, grudges etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sometimes wonder if Mary the mother of our Lord and \u201cthe disciple whom Jesus loved\u201d had any resentment between them. And I wonder if, in the moment of Jesus\u2019 death, those resentments melted away in the heat of their shared grief and then disappeared forever when Jesus said, \u201chere is your mother, here is your son\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grief is a monster. But it is a monster that gives us to one another.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAs always, be gentle with yourselves and hold your loved ones close. – Nadia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Restorative Justice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Activist and author<\/em> <\/strong>Shane Claiborne examines the tension between justice and grace: <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\nViolence is contagious. Violence begets violence.\u2026 Pick up the sword and die by the sword. You kill us and we\u2019ll kill you. There is a contagion of violence in the world; it\u2019s spreading like a disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But grace is also contagious.<\/strong> An act of kindness inspires another act of kindness\u2026. A single act of forgiveness can feel like it heals the world. Grace begets grace. Love rubs off on those who are loved\u2026. There\u2019s nowhere you can see the battle of grace and disgrace waged more vehemently than in the criminal justice system. When it comes to words like \u201cjustice,\u201d people can say the same thing and mean something completely different.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nCapital punishment offers us one version of justice. There is a sensibility to it: evil should not go without consequence. And there is a theology behind it: \u201cAn eye for an eye \u2026 a tooth for a tooth\u201d [Leviticus 24:20]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet grace offers us another version of justice. Grace makes room … for justice that is restorative, and dedicated to healing the wounds of injustice<\/strong>. But the grace thing is hard work. It takes faith\u2014because it dares us to believe that not only can victims be healed, but so can the victimizers. It is not always easy to believe that love is more powerful than hatred, life more powerful than death, and that people can be better than the worst thing they\u2019ve done<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese two versions of justice compete for our allegiance. One leads to death. The other can lead to life, and to healing and redemption and other beautiful things. [1] <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mennonite pastor Melissa Florer-Bixler connects forgiveness and restorative justice: <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\nWe are told that we choose whose world we want to live in. We\u2019ll choose wealth or God. We\u2019ll choose violence or God. We\u2019ll choose nationalism or God. We\u2019ll choose racial hierarchy or Go<\/strong>d. Each case is an example of a different and incompatible operational system. One of those systems, if we live by it, binds us in endless struggle and violence that leads to our own destruction, as well as the destruction of others\u2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nWe are asked to choose which world we want to live in\u2014a world of retributive justice or a world of forgiveness. [Theologian] Karl Barth, reflecting on forgiveness, writes, \u201cLiving by forgiveness is never by any means passivity, but Christian living in full activity.\u201d Barth writes that, when we finally come before God, we will not be asked to give an account of our piety or morality. Instead, we will be asked, \u201cDid you live by grace, or did you set up gods for yourself and perhaps want to become one yourself?\u201d [2]\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWe can\u2019t operate in both orders. And when the world of revenge enters the renewed creation, the order built on good news, it poisons the possibility of mutuality, transformation, and reconciliation<\/strong>. The way out of the endless loop of retribution is to recognize that forgiveness of individuals is interwoven with the social order of God\u2019s reign<\/strong>. [3]\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Orlando](\"https:\/\/images.unsplash.com\/photo-1505262744895-ac5705911f6f?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyNHx8dHdpbiUyMHRvd2Vyc3xlbnwwfHx8fDE3MjU5OTM2MzJ8MA&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&q=80&w=1080\" "\\"Orlando")
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