With the election just days away, many of us are feeling acute anxiety. No matter who prevails next Tuesday, it seems unlikely that our next President and Congress will be able to unify our deeply fractured nation and lead us forward into a brighter future. Our distrust of one another has become so profound that we can’t even agree on how to count votes or ensure a fair and just election process, things which we used to take for granted. I hope and pray that these worries of mine are misplaced, but the divisions within the American soul seem quite intractable these days.
We Americans also have developed an unfortunate tendency to be preoccupied with ourselves. I have some clergy friends who live and serve in other countries around the world, and they often comment to me how incredibly self-absorbed the American media has become, as if the only social, political, and economic matters worth reporting are about this country and especially our upcoming U.S. Presidential election. Yet, however important next Tuesday’s vote may be, we should not forget that there are over 8 billion people on this planet living in 195 different nation states, the vast majority of whom are struggling just to survive from day to day.
As Christians, these realities should trouble us deeply. The gospel of Jesus Christ quite clearly knows no political, racial, ethnic, or economic boundaries. Ours is a global faith. We are sisters and brothers in Christ first and foremost, before we are Americans, and certainly before we are Democrats or Republicans. We are called to be agents of God’s transforming love, healing and unifying this broken world, not dividing, plundering, and corrupting it. We are called to share, not hoard; reconcile, not bear grudges; make peace, not exact vengeance; serve, not tend only to our own needs; listen humbly to others’ concerns, not arrogantly assume that we always know best. Have we forgotten these gospel values?
My prayer for us all in the coming weeks and months is that, no matter the electoral outcome, we stay centered in the living Christ, trusting in His ways of love, rather than giving in to despair or cynicism. Stay engaged, pursue justice, speak the truth, pray for guidance. Let us “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2. Indeed, if you are looking for a Scriptural text to keep you grounded in these challenging times, I invite you to read and pray on the entire twelfth chapter of St. Paul’s magisterial Letter to the Romans, for it offers timeless advice on how Christians should carry themselves in times of crisis.
And, by all means, take solace in this truth too: God’s plan for saving this beautiful Creation of His does not depend on the outcome of this or any other election. God will make our crooked ways straight. Keep the faith.