Thank you to The Holy Spirit, Archbishop Jose Gomez, Stephen Colbert, and all those that said you are afraid for our country both before the election and after for the inspiration to write this. It isn’t great but…
Last night I stayed up until about 2 am before I just couldn’t fight going to sleep. The night started off as a slight interest in how much Trump would lose by and turned into a roller coaster of Trump is going to win. In the end, I just gave up on trying to watch. You see I know one thing the entire time…no matter who won, Jesus Christ is still King!
What an interesting road we have been on since the beginning of the year and now we start the new journey of our 45th President. One that half the country didn’t vote for. The election was filled with fear, terror, rumors, and allegations from both sides. We know that over half of each party is in true fear of the other party. Think about that for a second. To be truly afraid of a fellow American because of their beliefs. Someone that you go to school with, work with, or even go to Church with.
Jesus speaks about fear in this week’s gospels. He tells us that when we hear of wars and tumults, when we hear of nation raising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, not to be terrified because he will be with us in the end. You see one of the things that we know from both history, what God & Jesus has told us, and what Archbishop Jose Gomez of Houston reminded us on is that “politicians come and go; nations rise and fall; empires fade away – what remains and what continues is the Church that Jesus established on the rock of St. Peter.”
No matter who won last night, we are called to follow Jesus Christ as children of God and missionary disciples. To be faithful to Christ and to build God’s Kingdom here on earth.
Why is it that we should look to God on how to build our society? Just like with any creation it takes on the aspects of the person that built it. If I was to sit here and attempt to make a sculpture it would turn out horrible, because I am a flawed artist. No instead you should look to a great artist with much less flaws then me to make a sculpture. It is the same with society…we can look to these flaw rulers to make our society but in the end, we will still have a flawed society. With our flawed rulers, we start forgetting who the human person is. We listen to the flawed ruler rather than God and we start seeing others as not our brothers and sisters in Christ but we label them Democrat, Republican, Muslim, illegal immigrant, and pit ourselves against one another. With our flawed rulers, we marginalize those that are different. We make enemies of those that disagree with us. But, we may find rulers that have the least number of flaws and they led us towards a better society, that does less horrible things, but in the end they are still not perfect rulers and cannot make a perfect society. In the end we should look to that perfect ruler, Jesus Christ, to build our society.
Instead if we want to make America Great again, we need young men and women like yourselves who are committed to serving God and living their faith in every aspect of their lives. We need youth like 15-year-old, St. Jose Sanchez del Rio who till his dying breath shouted “Viva Christo Rey” during the Mexican Revolution and inspired others not to hide their faith but proudly declare their love for Jesus. We need youth like 24-year-old, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassatti who turned away from the things the world and his society said were important, money and power, to help the poor and feed the hungry all while lifting them up in prayer to God, till his death of polio. Like 10 and 11-year-old Bl. Francisco, Jacinto, and Lucia who brought the message of Our Lady of Fatima to the world, helping to bring many to Jesus during the tumults of the First World War.
Our new President wants to Make America Great Again. However, it will never be great if we relay on his vision and those of other men. As Archbishop Gomez said, “Our country and our world will be renewed – not by politics, but by saints.” Saints who know that Jesus Christ is King. Saints who love their fellow man no matter what. Saints who want to bring about the Kingdom of God. “And that means you and that means me. If we want a greater America, we need to become, by the grace of God, greater saints.”
Theology Teach 