Americans are asking this day how is that we have come to this place in our history where we are choosing between people who demonstrate narcissistic behavior and are proven public liars, both of whom are banking on the voters to care more about their personal agendas than about the good of their neighbors.
History proves civilizations come and go. And although Jesus promised the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church, He didn’t say how close we might come to their entrance.
We will not take our power, our reputations, our political views or our legacies, into eternity.
We ALL KNOW that. We will only take one thing; the love we show each and every soul we encounter day in and day out. The Kingdom of God is held within the soul of each human being, male or female, the very old or the child within the womb.
The Gospel speaks of the ten lepers who are healed. All of them cry out for healing. All of them believe Jesus can heal them. Only one returns to thank him. I have found myself contemplating, the other nine this weekend wondering, did they not come back in gratitude because they felt that somehow they deserved to be healed? How often do we look at all the blessings and graces we receive as something “owed” to us because we live good lives? St Bernard said: “Ingratitude is the enemy of our souls, the annihilation of our merits… and where there is ingratitude, grace no longer has access.” Bishop Robert Baron tells us, “we all have leprosy” of some kind, “even the greatest and most admired among us.”
While our country is being eaten away by dishonesty and greed, we the proud, being so focused on our own reflections, fail to see the decay eating away at our backs, nor do we see the suffering our choices are causing the souls of our fellow men.
Regardless of your personal political affiliation, it does not change the fact that each and every human soul was created by God and given flesh within the womb. Absolutely nothing in this world is more important or more fundamental for survival than this.
