Jesus teaches the basis of nonviolence during the Eucharist

All the Gospels explains that on the night Jesus was arrested, Jesus broke bread and passed a cup in that last Passover meal, saying, whenever you do this, remember me. I find these words and acts very inspiring and helpful in my priestly life also as we undertake lot of peace building activities. Celebrating and following the mass we enter into real life in the world we can very much remember Jesus, we can put him at the center of our lives and experience his presence in the midst of our activities.

Celebrating Eucharist at Mission Home Manja together with our seminarians and people for me is the place to gather and unite with others. These are moments to remember the life of Jesus, His nonviolent actions, arrest, execution and resurrection. And in the process of remembering him, we literally meet him present in our community, in the Word, in communion and in one another.

The Eucharist is so astonishing because it shows the depths of the mind and heart of Jesus, His love and the peacemaking gift of himself to humanity. Even as his friends are only hours away from betraying him, denying him and running away from him, he reaches out even more closer to them saying, I not only love you and call you my friends, I want to be your food, your drink, your breath, what a wonderful expression and act of nonviolence.

The implications of this experience are revolutionary, we truly enter into his presence, and take up where he left off, our lives are turned upside-down. I feel disarmed of my violence, reconciled with those around me, forgiven and able to forgive, and nourished and filled with a new inner peace. Somehow in this intimate meal, I receive the strength to take up the journey of nonviolence again, to go forth into the world and try to put the Gospel into practice. If we are attentive, the Eucharist can help us become people of nonviolence. It will root out the violence within us, and make us peacemakers.

The Eucharist not only makes the life of peace possible, it makes peace within and among us here and now. We too will start to live as he did, to reach out and give of ourselves like him, and to offer our lives for humanity in a spirit of loving nonviolence. From this encounter with Jesus, this experience of reconciliation, we go into the world to make peace, seek justice, love our enemies, and reconcile with one another.

I often think how only hours after the Last Supper, Jesus was still telling his friends to be

people of peace and nonviolence. Indeed, his last official words to the entire community, as he was being arrested and as they running away from him, was, Put down your sword. The last Passover meal of Jesus is intimately connected to his first commandment to love one another and to love our enemies, and his last commandment, to put down our swords. If we truly enter into the Spirit of the Eucharist, we are transformed and sent into the world as apostles and prophets of peace.