Hopeful Insubordination

MIR France, the French branch of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) published a book with a wonderful title "L'espérance insoumise" - Insubordinated hope. I love the title because I think I see in history - and these days - that where there is real hope there is insubordination. Subordination and hope don't go together well. Those who expect subordination and impose domination don't want change, whereas those who are looking for change and hope for it eventually end up refusing to be subordinated. That's a pattern throughout history.

The book talks about peace building, reconciliation, peaceful resistance. The hope is not only for change, but for lasting change away from domination. It is hope in the power of nonviolence and just peace. Whatever the suffering imposed on those who are insubordinate because they hope for a better future, their hopes will carry the day in the long run. They may loose today, but they will be proven right. That's real progress and nonviolence precisely builds on that. The crux on the road is really to have the courage to hope, because it means to have courage to not be subordinate. Isn't this what the beatitude about those who suffer for the sake of justice is referring to?