As we go to meet our Lord in the Eucharist this weekend – and hopefully also on election day – let us take the opportunity to be reminded and reoriented toward our foremost allegiance, our universal faith, our true hope for the world that unites us as one Body.
At the end of a bitterly divisive election season in which we have too often failed to love one another as we ought, we will plead to Christ our hope, “Lord, have mercy.”
Whatever our hopes and fears for electoral outcomes, we will rejoice to proclaim glory to God, peace on earth, and Christ’s unique lordship: “For you alone are the holy one, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the most high, Jesus Christ.”
With the Church universal we will confess one God who created all things, one Lord whose kingdom will have no end, one Spirit who has spoken through the prophets, one Church and one baptism to transcend all divisions.
With all the angels and saints we will join the unending hymn proclaiming the holiness of the Lord of hosts, joining also the crowd’s “Hosanna” to the king who comes in his Father’s name, not to conquer but to lay down his life.
We will proclaim the mystery of faith, holding up the Church’s eternal memory of our Lord’s death, resurrection, and second coming.
We will give our “Amen” of holy allegiance to Christ in the Eucharist, joining ourselves to the celebrant’s proclamation of praise to the almighty Father: “All glory and honor is yours, forever and ever.”
We will pray for the coming of our Father’s kingdom, audaciously asking to be forgiven as we ourselves forgive, and again reaffirming his eternal reign above all others: “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.”
We will offer a sign of peace to friends and enemies, neighbors and strangers, who may be making different choices at the polls but are still united around a common table.
We will greet the world’s only hope, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the numberless human failings in the face of which we can only implore, “Have mercy on us. Grant us peace.”
Above all, we will be made one Body by our share in the Body and Blood of our Lord, our one great hope of unity.
In a sense, the whole Mass is an anamnesis, a holy remembrance of where all glory truly belongs. Let us remember, lest the Body be dismembered. And as we seek the welfare of our earthly civitas as best we know how, let us bear witness to the only one with the power to heal its deep divisions. Let us become a living example, not merely of civility, but of fellowship.
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