What We Must Do Going Forward

The state of politics in our nation leaves most sane people exhausted and wondering how we ever could get to a better place.

This past week’s Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis reminds us, the answer is always “yes.”  Yes, we can become a better people. 

Yes, we can cooperate with grace and see each person we encounter as Christ in his distressing disguise.  Yes, we can reorient our lives so that we are a source of healing to those around us.  Grace does not merely have ripple effects outward,

but undertows that pull away at the injuries and hurts of our own lives and those we assist. 

Politics offers none of this.  When we hear the countless promises and weigh them against history, against policy, and against the seemingly endless parade of waste, corruption, bloat and excess, everyone is found wanting.  Discussion across the aisles likewise indicates a lack of fundamental respect for any opinions, proposals, or perspectives that do not match with the “R” or the “D,” and no statesman has come forth with a goal of bringing all the people of our nation to the table.  

However, the fate of our nation is not dependent upon who resides in the White House, or controls the legislative branch.  Our strength as a nation has always come from the benevolent character and courage of our people, and our desire to be something better, not out of vanity or machismo or arrogance, but out of a sincere love of the ideals upon which this nation was crafted.  We want to live out the mission of being a free people, and to ensure that we maintain our God given rights to live out that reality.

That reality is manifested in our lives, in what we do and do not do, say and do not say.  To be Catholic and witness to a nation, we must look at ourselves first.  What injustice can we address?  Who is our neighbor?  Feed them.

So Catholics in particular come from each mass with a mission of spreading the good news, of being vessels of grace.  We are not to define ourselves except through Christ.  Everything else falls to the side.  Christ is our hope, and we are to bring that reality to how we work, and how we interact with each person we encounter, whether through emails or commuter rails.  

We are called to be saints, to convey the hope, the promise of a better tomorrow, by each of our acts each day.  Our tone online and in real life needs to reflect our desire to see all people as equals in dignity.  Society requires order, activism, and vision.  Community requires proximity,  presumption of good faith, and connection.  

This election will decide who holds the power to affect policy.  However, tone, tenor and trust of our national dialogue about big and small things, peace, budgets, education, rights, altruism, justice, beauty, truth, guns and butter, breakfast, bar and dinner table issues comes from how we interact with and engage each other.  Let us begin our visit.