I was looking at The Grand Inquisitor by Dostoyevsky and trying to relate it to the same reading that was assigned during that week. The poem that Ivan tells his brother Alyosha about the return of Christ during the times of the Spanish Inquisition seem to resemble the parable like structures that we read in the Gospel of Matthew. Honestly I thought that the Inquisitor who kept criticizing Jesus action from him previous visit to earth would never stop speaking as Ivan told the poem that seemed to be more like a short story within itself, "'Receiving bread from us, they will see clearly that we take the bread made by their hands from them, to give it to them, without any miracle. They will see that we do not change the stones to bread, but in truth they will be more thankful for taking it from our hands than for the bread itself! For they will remember only too well that in old days, without our help, even the bread they made turned to stones in their hands, while since they have come back to us, the very stones have turned to bread in their hands. Too, too well will they know the value of complete submission! And until men know that, they will be unhappy. Who is most to blame for their not knowing it?-speak! Who scattered the flock and sent it astray on unknown paths?" (Dostoyevsky 14)


In the next reading, The Gospel of Matthew I focused on more of the guideline Jesus gave on "violence" when he delivered his Sermon on the Mount. My favorite guideline that he gave was,   “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right check, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have they cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and ray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;.” Jesus method of teaching by use of the parable is nonviolent in nature itself because it really is only suggestive and has no force behind the teachings.