VOTE : “When we decide wisely, God reigns. When we decide unwisely, God reigns.”
Individually and collectively we, US citizens, have become like bubbles in the froth of hurricane whipped waves, smashing and crashing into our selves and one another. We can barely keep up with the tennis match volley of “who dun-it to whom.” We have forgotten that the preferred political fish is red herring and we have allowed ourselves to be distracted from issues that matter by perpetual prurient pandering. The art of public discourse has regressed to the use of shocking stories or language at the expense of accuracy, intended to incite rather than inform.
I remember living on the East coast where the snow fell in grand and glorious mountains. Drifts must have been ten, twenty one hundred feet high and we kids dug snow caves and castles and ate frozen molasses dribbled on fresh sheets of snow. Well, there was snow and molasses, but the drifts only appeared mountainous to me who stood knee high to a grasshopper.
We humans have a funny way of exaggerating and idealizing “the way things used to be.” It is true now and was true twenty-five hundred years ago when the prophet Haggai encounters the disheartened Jews as they are returning from seventy years of exile in Babylon, harboring big dreams of rebuilding Solomon’s temple. Without mincing words, the prophet counsels the Jews to stop trying to rebuild the past and instead direct their attention to ‘now’ because right here, right now is where God is. Speaking on behalf of God we hear Haggai’s encouragement, “Take courage all you people of the land for I am with you… my Spirit lives among you, so do not fear.” (See Haggai text below)
Alright Haggai,“Where is God today? Where is God on the final stretch of this presidential campaign?” Today we look to the news for gospel; TV, online, radio, blog sites and twitter feeds. It does not matter in which form we take it, all day and night we are bombarded with twenty to thirty second blurts of political babel. Regardless of the particular source, pundits have refined the art of igniting fires, provoking torrential waves of emotion and carrying the collective consciousness of us, the United States citizens, out of our hearts, our souls and our minds. There, I said it. We are out of our minds, our souls and our hearts.
Individually and collectively we have become like bubbles in the froth of hurricane whipped waves, smashing and crashing into our selves and one another. We can barely keep up with the tennis match volley of “who dun-it to whom.” We have forgotten that the preferred political fish is red herring and we have allowed ourselves to be distracted from issues that matter by perpetual prurient pandering. The art of public discourse has regressed to the use of shocking stories or language at the expense of accuracy, intended to incite rather than inform.
We, the people, are swept away in tsunamis of emotion. We have lost our hearts, our souls and our minds in the news of non-overlapping magisteria. We have forgotten who and whose we are and the sacred ground on which we are meant to stand, together.
In a mere nine days, some of us will call the election a win. Some will call it a loss and some, with furrowed brows pumping fists will declare, the outcome is inadmissible.
Here is the thing. Although we are privileged to pledge our allegiance to the Constitution of one of the richest nations in the world, our first and foremost allegiance belongs to God. We are people of God. We are the visible body of the One Spirit that Jews call Adonai, Christians call Christ, Muslims call Allah, Buddhists call Buddha, Hindus call Brahman and Native Americans call Great Spirit; a life force that is present in all aspects of the natural world, even if we do not call it anything at all.
Beginning with the book of Genesis, the entire narrative of human civilization is punctuated with prophets, prophets who never stop warning God’s people to “love the Lord our God will all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds, and love our neighbors as ourselves.”
We may no longer bow down before wooden statues and golden calves as did our ancient ancestors but we are beguiled by countless junk gods that consume our lives and our time; from electronic devices to enormous TVs, expensive cars and towering buildings, lust and greed for pleasure and money, clinging to youth, and of course our idolatry of “the way things used to be.” These are some of our twenty-first century idols. The consequence of worshipping them is, we suffer loss upon loss upon loss because we are worshipping things that cannot last.
You may well wonder, How are we “to love the Lord our God will all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds, and love our neighbors as ourselves” in the midst of so much turmoil? It is actually very simple. Pray. Pray the way Jesus teaches. Meditate the way the Buddha demonstrates. Answer the Muslim call to prayer.
Turn off our TVs, the radio, phone, computer, and every media delivering device. Go into our rooms, close the door and pray to our God in secret. Pray with our whole heart, soul and mind saying, “Not my will, Your will be done.” “There is no god but God.”
The prophet Haggai instructed Zerubbabel the statesman and Joshua the priest, “take courage.” And to all the people of the land Haggai said, “take courage… because the spirit of (God) lives among you. Do not fear!” We need to hear and heed the Haggai’s counsel.
God is God of love and hope for all people. As difficult as it may be for us to see or even believe, on this very day, at this very moment, God is working in the world for the good of all people, and depends on us to “take courage” and vote wisely.
Remember. In a monarchy sovereignty resides with the monarch. In a democracy sovereignty resides with the people, with whom the Spirit of God resides.
During the Battle of Britain in the early 1940s, William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury said “When we decide wisely, God reigns. When we decide unwisely, God reigns.”
It is time for us to honestly look at all that we say, all that we do and the way that we will vote asking, “How do my thoughts, my words and my vote reveal to the world that God reigns? How am I a revelation of God’s love and hope for all people today?”
Haggai 2.1–9
In the second year of King Darius,in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendour, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.
Debra Asis
All words are generated by grace and the grit of this real human being.
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William Barry, SJ’s quote is found in today’s selection in An Ignatian Book of Days by Jim Manney is a series of daily reflections from the Spiritual Wisdom of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Throughout the book we hear the voices of St. Ignatius as well as many great thinkers and writers, long gone and present day, each uniquely revealing the way of finding God in all things. And that is my intention; to find God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality in whatever presents itself to me each day in 2024.
Each day I read, reflect and write on the selection, hoping to articulate the ways in which I come to know God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality via personal experience, impelled by the leading of my inner life.
INVITATION
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