Reflection and Resolution at This Time

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Here we are post-election and some of us may be happy, and some may be dismayed and disappointed. Despite what some pundits declare, our narrative must be truthful: the election was not a mandate of a win since the Harris candidacy lost by only a few points in every state Trump won. If you observe the divided vote carefully, you will see that the numbers demonstrate the nation is clearly divided completely in half. This reality will continue to exist and the angst and furor among us will only grow.

The New Yorker magazine’s front cover this week is thoughtful: The Statue of Liberty is walking a high tight rope into New York. Rex Huppke, respected columnist for USA Today, wrote a chilling article asserting that he never wants to hear the words, “America is better than this,” because we aren’t. We are instead, “a totem of the worst in all of us.” Similarly, Susan B. Glasser of The New York Times, opined that “America has twice elected him President and it is a disastrous revelation about what the United States really is as opposed to the country so many hoped it could be.” These are only two of the more cerebral, insightful thinkers of our time many of whom represent journalism, historical research, science, business, government and more, who have turned out extraordinary reactions to the election. I encourage you to read as much as you can – in a wide plethora of publications – to put your mind at the threshold of peace. And what would be next? What would bring you into the place of real peace?

Your spirit, your faith. We need to be treating our soul now as much as our minds. We can study or listen to what caused the election to go as it did, but we need to tend to the soul to see how it can feed the mind and heart correctly. We cannot throw up our arms in despair if our candidate lost, nor can we haughtily sneer with a jubilant “gotcha” attitude if our candidate won. No, the mind and soul must be fed by a spirit and a faith hoisted by more prayer and reflection, deepened by more understanding and love. We are a deeply divided nation. Our division is a major self-inflicted wound that only we can heal. Bishop William Barber cites the examples of marginalized people who lost their civil rights to vote, or laborers who lost their right to unionize, or schools that lost the right to integrate, and he points out that after every loss, the marginalized “got up, dusted off, and went to work more vigorously than before.” They realized that only they could begin the healing.

We will heal our wounds by facing the opposition and making the effort to dialogue, to sit at the table and talk. It is the Christian thing to do. Next, I highly recommend a very thoughtful reading of a brief, but compact book by Catholic theologian Daniel P. Horan titled, Faith and Fear: Hope and Wholeness in a Fractured World.

If ever there were a document or book that exposes the nerves of this time in a context of faith it is this book. Horan shows that all humans possess primal fear; we are wired with it. But primal fear becomes unnatural fear when we listen to ‘fear mongers’ who substitute quantitative data with scenarios or anecdotal stories to make us fearful and thus follow their persuasion. Jesus constantly addressed such fears when he spoke of the pharisaical demands imposed unreasonably upon faithful Jews. We cannot act freely when we are bound by unnatural fears. The problem is not that we have fears, but “that we live in a state of fear that affects the way we see the world creating anxiety that is not in proportion to the real danger.” (Michael Kinnamon, quoted in “Fear and Faith,” p. 10.) On a large scale, says Horan, such fears result in the rise of demagogues and dictators who create systemic injustice.

Faith proves that we cannot attend to the common good if we are unnaturally fearful. God cares about the common good. God cares that we attend to the common good as much as possible for with God all common good is built on relationship, like the Trinity. The key to emerging from fear is to reflect on and pray for the courage to live hope more fully by getting involved in the common good. Doing more for others, joining groups that help others, moving outside one’s comfort zone, becoming more politically and socially aware and helpful. 

Reflection

Some people have asked me if it is all right to have doubt in one’s faith after one has prayed so hard and the prayer seems not to have been answered. Yes, we can have doubt. In fact, faith flourishes through one’s doubts. We could almost say there is no faith without doubt. And, if one hopes as one believes, faith becomes prophetic like the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures and the disciples of Jesus in the Christian Scriptures. We cannot stop believing that the common good will not occur; we must work as if it will because of our faith and action.

My youngest brother sent me the following prayer that helped him after the election; I hope it can help some of you. At its root is faith and hope.

“Renew My Strength God of Strength, who calls forth eagles to bend wings in adoration, who sends eagles to wing wide in praise. I am in need of strength. Carry me on your loving wings. Renew my strength. Give me the energy for the going and create in me an openness in future flying. Great God of eagles’ hearts, I want to trust that you will bear me up, that you will support me. I look to you to renew my strength just as surely as eagles’ wings are wide in the sky.”  (Joyce Rupp)

God bless all of you, my readers, and my Anonymous Angels.