After The Election, What Really Matters…UPDATED

There will be much post-election chatter to keep us occupied for days, if not weeks. In the coming hours, much ink will be spilled on the subject and your humble blogger may even indulge in adding to the straw pile of “what it all means” recaps of the election.

But not right now.

You see, I’m embarked on a journey to become fully human, and not just a cog in some machine. It’s a journey I was called towards back in 2006, and for which I packed my bags for in 2007, and crossed the line of departure on the Easter Vigil in 2008.

And now, regardless of the time, or the seasons, or the weather, the road goes ever on, and I must tread upon it.

Thankfully there is a light up ahead, one that is sometimes covered by clouds, yet eternally shining even if it be obscured from time to time. Through every upheaval and every storm, a long line of saints have endured. I call to mind their travails and example whenever I recite the Creed.

To conform my mind to the mind of Christ is the work of my life. For life is what I seek, and no politician can deliver it to me.

Like many of you, embarked on the same journey, I am reading the Catechism throughout the celebration of the Year of Faith. I readily admit that I am ignorant of the full majesty, truth, and grandeur, of the Faith of our Fathers. And reading the tenants of our faith, a little bit at a time, helps me to persevere when the road gets rough, and when the fog gets oppressive.

Yet upon this road to humanity and life everlasting, winding through the desert of modernity, the Creed reminds us of what really matters.

As on the day of our Baptism, when our whole life was entrusted to the “standard of teaching”, let us embrace the Creed of our life-giving faith. To say the Credo with faith is to enter into communion with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and also with the whole Church which transmits the faith to us and in whose midst we believe:

This Creed is the spiritual seal, our heart’s meditation and an ever-present guardian; it is, unquestionably, the treasure of our soul.

St. Ambrose knows. Won’t you say it with me, pray it with me, now?

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.