Now that the polls are closed in the great swing state of Ohio that I call home, I am more reserved than I was all day. Except for the counting, the re-counting, the hanging chads (electronic or otherwise), and the law suits that no doubt have already been drafted and need only be filed … what’s done is done. The winner has been picked and only needs revealed. As I, along with the nation, anxiously await the results, a thought struck me, not like a ton of bricks, but more like a whispered prayer.
The great miracle of history is how the God of the universe manages blessing in all situations. This is obvious in cases where good triumphs over evil. Yet the contradiction of the Cross demonstrates blessing even in the darkest moments of humanity.
If Romney has won, it signals at least a temporary end to the dismantling of religious freedom by the Obama administration. It may bring the benefit of a Supreme Court nomination that very well could be an important vote for future cases involving a whole host of issues about which Catholics will care deeply. This, along with other issues including a return to fiscal responsibility, will be a true blessing in which we can rejoice and for which we can thank God.
If Romney has lost, what then? A friend of mine expressed great concern about the persecution that the Church will suffer, beginning with the HHS mandate that will be pushed forward. This is indeed a concern, and I have prayed ceaselessly that we may be spared it. Yet at the same time, when my friend asked, “What will the Church do?”, I responded very simply. She will do what she has always done. She will embrace the persecution, all the while fighting it, and martyrs will be made. The Church knows exactly what to do in times of persecution, for she has been done that road before. In fact, she thrives amidst persecution. And this too is a blessing. The Christian contradiction is the transformation that the Cross brings to suffering.
Don’t take my reservation to be a pessimism; quite the contrary. I predict a Romney victory with 51% of the popular vote and 287 electoral votes. Yet if the ballots fall the other way, I will not hang my head. Disappointment will not give way to despair, for my salvation and the salvation of the world does not fall in the person of Mitt Romney, president or otherwise. While we rejoice in individual victories that good enjoys over evil, we do not despair in those battles lost. We do not despair because we know the end of this narrative. We know that Christ will come again, that evil has been definitively conquered in the sacrifice of the Cross. With the end already known, the only question is what part we will play in the great drama of salvation. Either way, there is great blessing.
Thank you, Jake! Good message!
No matter what, things will work out.
Can be very, very painful on the way, but things work out.
Seeing the inevitable unfold… thank you for reminding me of this “the salvation of the world does not fall in the person of Mitt Romney, president or otherwise”. My catholic brothers and sisters in the states: you’ll be fine. Despite everything, you’ve done well this past 4 years and will do even better the next 4.
So much for the influence of Bishops telling catholics not to vote for those that support the evil of abortion. Catholics contributed heavely to President Obama’s re-election in the norteastern states.
Ever so little sleep and I woke with a start… I have the lesson from this entirely wrong.
Secularism is the explicit turning from God to rely on man. Similarities there may be between the corrosive effects of wealth on empires but these are the symptoms, not the causes of woe. The proper parallel is found in the Old Testament.
The OT is, essentially the story of God’s repeated efforts to turn Man back to Him alone.
Adam relied on God alone. The First Commandment was satisfied for Adam could not help but love God with all of his being. Then God made Eve and the Second Great Commandment was satisfied for Adam could not help but love Eve as himself for she was “flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.”
They fell and turned from their Creator, learning to place trust in themselves rather than God. Indeed, Adam was thrust out of God’s protection and nature was set against him. Cain kills Abel because God receives Abel’s sacrifice and blesses him for it – in essence, because Abel places his trust in God rather than his own strength, God blesses him, He restores some measure of His protection.
The Old Testament is replete with variation on this theme.
Abraham is blessed because he places his trust in God’s strength, not his own. Isaac and Jacob too. We see David vacillating between a state of complete trust in the Lord and trust only in Man. We see God blessing the Israelites only when they place their trust EXCLUSIVELY in His strength rather than their own. He uses elaborate schemes to dwindle the strength of the Israelite forces so that no one can claim that it was Man’s strength that won the day. They march around Jericho blowing trumpets and men who drink directly from the Jordan rather than cupping the water and drinking from their hands are unworthy to face their foes.
Again and again we see this theme – that you are on your own when you trust in Man. Only completely giving yourself over to God is acceptable to Him.
The message I should have taken from tonight is that America is being left to our own devices to teach us the same lesson He has been trying to teach our beloved race since the beginning; that we can do nothing good independent of Him.
As America has turned more and more to the strength of Man – our ingenuity, our intellect, our passions – we have adopted a philosophy that justifies our turning from Him – Secularism. We re-cast our history to show religious fervor as the enemy of Reason so as to convince othrs that salvation for Man rests in the restraints of Reason – as though Reason can restrain Satan, that great delusional beast whose Reason failed him as assuredly as did his Faith.
Obama is an emblem, a sign of a deeper cancer, gnawing at the body politic. He is the dark bruise on the flesh of the fruit, indicating and yet hiding the putrification beneath. The key then is not to find the right people to lead us, but to let it go and trust that nothing but He that Is can take care of us, that no amount of vetting, spinning, polling, or messaging will make things right, that the “reasonable” thing to do is abandon Reason and put our trust only in Him.
Weird. It took a sleepless, depressed night to see what is repeatedly and specifically stated in Sacred Scripture.
How’d I miss THAT.
Good night friends. I am going to sleep now and let God take care of tomorrow.
Vivat Jesus!
I haven’t slept all night, either. I just couldn’t fathom the stupidity. Thanks, G-Veg; your message is right on the money. I am going to sleep now, too.
Today, right now, there are millions of souls in Purgatory who need our prayers. If I spent half the time praying that I spend whining, I could clear out a good chunk of Purgatory myself.
Anyway, it’s November. If you’re feeling sad and impotent today, we can do something that can concretely change the lives of those who need us.