Fear nothing

"Remember, now, that the state has only one power it can use against human beings: death. The state can persecute you, prosecute you, imprison you, exile you, execute you. All of these mean the same thing. The state can consign you to death. The grace of Jesus Christ in this life is that death fails. There is nothing the state can do to you, or to me, which we need fear."
--William Stringfellow, from when he was asked to give a short word to a group of believers meeting together to support Daniel Berrigan and others from the "Catonsville Nine," who were on trial at the time. I've been reading from "A Keeper of the Word," an anthology of Stringfellow's writings by Bill Wylie-Kellerman. I highly recommend it.