Once Upon an Election

Over the past several days I have been giving a lot of thought to our recent elections and the voting process in general and I have come to a few conclusions that I wanted to throw out so that others could roll them around in their minds and discuss them on cool fall evenings over a cup of steaming hot cocoa.  The first is that presidential elections are in many ways very anti-Catholic.  Let me be clear that I do not mean this in a policy or legal way (though some have already stopped reading), but rather in a practical and spiritual way.  For example, over the last 2 months how many conversations have most of us had with friends and family members about something political, either a ballot measure or a candidate or the evils of of one political party vs. the other? Now compare it with how many conversations you have had and the amount of time you have spent talking to people, friends, and family members about your faith or about how God is working in your life?  How many billions of dollars and thousands of hours were spent on political campaigns that could have been spent spreading the Gospel?  How many of us were absolutely glued to our television/radio/computer for all three presidential debates, but have never bothered to tune in and watch a general audience from the Holy Father or even listen to Catholic radio?  How many Catholics put a sign in their yard or a sticker on their car proudly proclaiming their political allegiance, yet would never consider proclaiming their faith in any such way because someone might find it "offensive"?  My point is not that the political process is bad and that we shouldn't care, my point is simply one of priorities. When the first Commandment says that we should have no other gods before God, where do we really stand?  The amount of time, energy, and resources that we spend on politics reveals that many people in our world are still desperately hungry for a savior.  The problem is that they are looking to the wrong man.  The President of the United States is not our savior, and it doesn't matter if he is a Republican or a Democrat. Christ is our savior.  He transcends political, social, and racial boundaries.  Christ doesn't care if you are part of the 1% or the 99%, He cares if you are following Him. It may be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter heaven, but how many people even know what these words of Christ even really mean? We have been commanded by our savior to go out and make disciples of ALL the nations.  The work of spreading the Gospel is not something reserved for the priests, youth ministers, and professional evangelists; it is the work of all of us, the faithful in the trenches of the world.  Now this isn’t to say that elections are not important.  After all, our president and elected leaders can either make it much easier to follow the will of God, or they can pass laws that directly attack Gods people and His Church.  In the end, however, God will triumph. Cardinal George remarked upon the election of Pope Benedict about where was the successor to the Roman emperors? 

Where was the successor to Julius Caesar or Marcus Aurelius?  They were long gone and no one really cares about them anymore, but the successor of Peter was standing right next to him.  Long after this election and all the others are over, the Church and Peter will endure.  Let’s keep our eyes and our hearts in that direction.