+ On this last Sunday before this year’s Election Day balloting the readings quite coincidentally have to do with the priority and perspective that must be part of an American Catholic’s thought-processing as she/he approaches the place of casting-ballots. We, as members of the Catholic Church, do not belong simply to a “society” or a “fraternity” of like-minded fellows, such as you would find on an Ivy League University Campus. We belong rather to a very real mystical, supernatural, Body – a living organism – comprising the very reality of Christ Jesus, our Crucified and Risen founder, redeemer and Lord! This ought to make an enormous difference in how we approach life both within the Church, and in the secular world in which we must also simultaneously live.
The “society” or “fraternity”
vision is a completely natural and pragmatic one; and, it is dog-eat-dog – it is success at any cost
– it is enthusiasm without direction and boundaries. The Church on the other
hand is entirely supernaturally based, and operates on principles that take into
consideration the natural, but supersede them and give them true meaning, value
and credibility. Our Catholic view is so much more comprehensive.
The senses can only take us so
far, but faith, the priceless and ingenious gift of God to those who would have
it, allows for a depth of experience, vision and motivation that on the natural
level is just not possible.
The earthbound say that POWER
is everything; the heaven-bound say: LOVE is
everything: LOVE (GOD) CREATED EVERYTHING, and it “indwells it,” keeps it all
in existence, motivates it, guides it, directs it and keeps it safe on a track
that will lead to a Beatific Experience of Itself that no natural science could
ever imagine.
It is that love that is spoken
of in the readings today: Moses tells the people in the first reading: FEAR THE
LORD, YOUR GOD! KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS – and his commandments are easy – they
are all about LOVE: LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOU’VE GOT!
In the gospel passage, Jesus –
God’s love-made-flesh – with a mouth
to speak – tells us: yes, LOVE GOD FIRST, AND ABOVE ALL – WITH ALL YOUR HEART,
UNDERSTANDING AND STRENGTH – and then go one step further: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
AS YOURSELF. This is perfection.
This is infinitely pleasing to
God: and if you do these things: the perfect ordering of society will not be
far behind. You will know how to make just laws that are derived from the
supernatural original law of love, you will treat all others with dignity and
respect, you will not wish to contradict the revelation of God about any
institution that he has already set into place, and you will always choose what
is right and good because your conscience will be rightly formed – with God’s
own Spirit flowing into it!
Yes, at this balloting time of
the year – a “Catholic Vote” is not just a cliché or a political agenda – it is
the mind of Christ operating in the
baptized who must certainly yes give to Caesar what is Caesar’s; but to God,
always, what is God’s: and that begins with the willingness to be used by
him to help fashion a society of truly free, happy and peaceful men, women and
children – living now, the very beginnings of the family life that we will live with him forever in heaven – a family
of his own design and making!
Amen!
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