Election Sunday
I went to lunch with a parishioner this week at a local restaurant that was very busy and had a long wait
line.
We said we, if there is room at the bar we wouldn't mind having lunch at the bar counter. We found the
only two chairs together and sat down.
There was a very affable man on my left and we quickly struck up a conversation. He was fairly recently
divorced and said he'd been living like a teenager these past few months. Going off to LA to party, then
decided to run down to Mexico for a while.
He was really enjoying his new lease on life, as he ordered his third and fourth glass of vodka water,
with no water, but in a water glass.
He had an appointment to get his sleeve tattoo finished and he was trying to time his impending
sobriety with the completion of the tattoo.
Then we moved to politics and he said, how did our country get to where we are? Is this the best we
can do for candidates for president?
Then I started thinking like the Pharisee in last week’s gospel, "lord I'm so glad I'm not like this sinner.
It must be people like him that our country is in the shape that it's in.
Then my next thought came straight from God that said,
not really, its people that judge other people and point out the faults of others
so they don't have to take any responsibility for anything that's wrong in this country or in their life.
I know this election year is very high energy, some would say revolting.
It causes some to doubt the future of the country and wonder if their vote will make any difference.
Some people shake their heads in frustration about the moral decline of society and wonder how we
got to this point.
In Archbishop Coakley's recent letter entitled;
Voting is a Moral Act
"The health of the state, of civil society, of a nation is a projection of the health of the souls and
characters of its citizens. If our laws and policies turn a blind eye to the poor, it is because too many of
us do the same.
All of this is to say that if we find ourselves asking how our nation got here, then we need to look within
our own hearts...
most of us, myself included, probably have to accept some responsibility for the state of our country.
We can't blame everyone else for our problems. Although it's easy to do.
Fr. Jonathan Morris, a national news affiliate tweeted,
.we have terribly flawed candidates. I'll vote for the one I believe will best protect life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
Someone responded-"Most of you including Father Morris , dance around who they actually are going
to vote for, why don't you begin your post with I am voting for......and then give your reason why."
Fr. Morris
It's respect for YOU. I give principles. I trust you to use your God-given reason and conscience to
choose properly.
That is why you don't hear deacons and priests and bishops preach about candidates for which you
ought to vote.
The clergy are entrusted with preaching about principles and virtues which help properly form a
conscience that guides a person to vote for the candidate that will contribute to the highest good of
society.
And so It is God that makes us stronger when we are together.
And it is Faithfulness not greatness that God desires from America.
years ago
Archbishop Fulton Sheen said
The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those
who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”
There have been many elections in our nation’s history where both candidates have had a variety of
ethical values. One may have had a stronger stance on the economy, or healthcare, or low income,
social programs, education, national security.
No one individual candidate has ever had a purely Catholic position in American politics even if they
were Catholic themselves.
We have always had to vote for the candidate that would be closest to Church teaching and the
common good.
Catholic Social Teaching promotes a seamless continuity on the sacredness and value of human life.
As a person’s life begins at the moment of conception all the way to a natural death, the Church says
that each human soul has intrinsic worth and value.
When a society builds a culture of life that says even if you are blind or lame, or mentally or physically
imperfect, or homeless or in prison, or terminally ill, but you still matter, we still consider you to be a
valuable member of our human family, then that society continues to open itself up to the grace of
redemptive hope for all its members.
But if a society begins to determine for itself who has value, who contributes to the common good, and
who has the right to participate, like the unborn, or those in a vegetative state, then that egocentric society is on track of dictating which lifestyle is acceptable, what to believe within your
religion, and whose life is worth saving or terminating.
Logan’s Run was a movie about a future society in which both population and the consumption of
resources are maintained in balance by requiring the death of everyone reaching the age of 30.
Everything was controlled, and perfect and every pleasure you could desire was basically at your
fingertips. Until you turned 30 and then you had to be terminated because you had become obsolete.
As Christians We are not called to create a perfect utopia in this life but a society of hope, a culture of
integrity and a community where all members of the human family have a rightful place among us.
So we are not voting for candidates because of their likability or deplorability.
We vote for the candidate that will truly best serve the common good, and not just who they happen to
like personally.
If we have at least one candidate that is open to a culture of life and not hostile to Catholics and
respects religious liberty, then not only do we have a treasured right but a moral obligation to vote.
Mother Angelica once said,
I don't vote for candidates,
I vote for life.
I will not vote for death. I think she was right.
If we keep voting to kill ourselves, by abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, unjust wars, capital
punishment and however else the culture of death can tighten its noose around unformed minds,
we won't be stronger together or make America great again.
I think Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings said it best when he said to Gandalf;
"“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All
we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
JRR Tolkien