Recently released after two years in prison, Sister Megan Rice can’t wait to go back.
The 85-year-old nun was arrested in 2012, when she and two colleagues broke into a nuclear plant in Tennessee and painted biblical phrases with anti-war messages over the facility, as well as splattering a vial of human blood on the walls. After being convicted in 2013, she was originally sentenced to three years in prison.
Earlier this month, however, a court ruled that the verdict was too extreme and she was released. And her years in detention have barely slowed her down. “What would be better than to die in prison for the antinuclear cause?” she exclaimed in an interview, already planning her next moves as a nonviolent protestor. Talk about having the courage of one’s convictions!
Now, before everyone goes straight to the comment
section, I am definitely not arguing that we all be like Sister Rice and
get ourselves arrested for our chosen cause. But I can’t help but be
reminded of Jesus overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the
temple. He, too, chose civil disobedience in the face of injustice. When
he saw that the temple had been turned into a market place, the gospel
of John tells us that he made himself a whip and physically drove
everyone out, scattering all their coins and destroying their tables and
goods. Like Sister Rice, Jesus did not sit idly by; he chose to act
when he saw people doing what was wrong.
But what does that mean for us? Given that very few of us are going to break into nuclear facilities or physically drive people away from sin, how can we stand firm to our own convictions?
Sometimes this choice is easier than others. It can be making the decision to recycle or spend part of your food budget on products that are local or free-range. It can be trying to buy clothing that wasn’t made with unfair labor practices. Or voting for whatever political candidate you feel will best support Catholic social teachings. But even these small choices take a kind of courage. The courage to do what might be more inconvenient or a little more expensive in order to help the planet. Or the courage to reserve judgment on any political candidate until you’ve done your homework on their beliefs.
But sometimes it’s harder to stand up for what is right. And, again, we might not be called to get arrested for our beliefs, it’s these situations where we can take a page from Sister Rice’s book. Do we speak up? Do we stand up for people we see being bullied? Do we help the homeless man we pass on the street every day? Do we volunteer? Do we get involved with local government? Do we look for opportunities to reach out to people who are different than us, or do we stay safe in our own communities? Do we stand up for racial justice? Environmental justice? Economic justice?
Like Jesus driving the moneychangers out of the temple and Sister Megan Rice continuing her anti-nuclear activism even after years of imprisonment, Catholics are called to run toward the fray, not away from it. To be engaged in working to end injustice, knowing that despite our fear, God is with us.
Image: Wikimedia, Christ Cleansing the Temple, by Bernardino Mei
