Henri Nouwen, in Behold the Beauty of the Lord, asks a question still pressing today: “How can we live in the midst of a world marked by fear, hatred, and violence, and not be destroyed by it?”
He offers the following in answer:
“When Jesus prays to his Father for his disciples he responds to this question by saying:
‘I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.’ (John 17:15-16)