Moving Forward

The days since the election have been filled with one person reflecting on our nation and where we go from here after another, and since I claim to be no expert on politics and government I will not try to do that. Along with that, one person after another has spoken of the difficulties facing the Church in the future, specifically as regards religious freedom, the fight to defend human life, and the fight to defend the sanctity of marriage, so I will not speak on those as I am also no expert in any of those topics.

In fact, I am no expert on any topic; but that won't stop me from giving a quick little reflection on what is on my mind. Four years ago when our President Obama was elected a dear friend of mine Fr. Conrad Harkins, OFM spent about 1/2 hour in every single homily for the next 2 months (and this is not an exaggeration, if you know him you'll understand) reflecting on the state of the Church and the nation. His reflections were simple: "convert the hearts of the people, and they will smash their own idols." This was the idea with which Franciscan missionaries had managed to enter new worlds which were hostile to outsiders and not only manage to avoid martyrdom, but also manage to convert a vast majority of the people and allow the Good News of Jesus Christ to take hold. Why, he would ask, do we think that electing a public official or changing a policy will work in the long run? Yes, these things are important, but the only way to actually change the world in which we live is to change hearts. The only way we can affect anything is to love, and to do so by helping those we encounter to come to know the Truth of Jesus Christ.

The world we are in doesn't need politicians. It doesn't need political activists. Don't get me wrong, some people are called to work in those fields, and are very important to the political landscape. The political sphere, however, is not going to change in our nation if we are not actively working to change hearts, and the only way that we can actively work to change hearts is by becoming saints. Saint Francis set out to re-build the Church physically, and learned that he had to continue to give himself over in radical poverty to an all-loving God and help others to do the same, and in re-building the Church this way he would have great success.

Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly called situation in our world a move towards a "dictatorship of relativism" wherein we see the hearts and minds of the people in our world controlled by a 'do whatever feels good' fallacy that leaves us broken and wanting. Simply attacking that lifestyle, however, will not bring change; it will bring a harsh reaction that pulls more people away from Christ than leads them to Him. Our response must be one of swift action: pray. Not just pray for our nation and pray for laws. In fact, those need to take a backseat. Pray that our hearts might be changed. That our hearts might be set ablaze. That our hearts might long for a radical communion with a God who spends each moment seeking us and desiring us to invite Him into the sort of intimate communion for which we were created. Pray that we would come to know God and to let His message permeate our lives, and then live as if He actually has changed us, and watch the world around us begin to change.