It is easy to feel defeated when we put so much time and effort into a campaign to save lives and protect human dignity, only to be rejected by popular vote. It is easy to feel defeated when portions of society brazenly celebrate death in the form of Amendment 3.
We must remember that even if things had gone our way on election day, the battle would have continued. The true enemy, the enemy of the Cross of Christ, is not of flesh and blood. The enemy is cunning, baffling, relentless and persistent. The enemy of the Cross of Christ will stop at nothing to see our spiritual destruction and the undermining (if not outright demise) of the Catholic faith.
The enemy seeks to separate us along the dividing lines of identity groups, economic class, and other secular definitions of what it claims defines a human person. The reality is that the enemy doesn’t care about the Truth. The enemy only cares about self.
The political system is the domain of the enemy. The media is the domain of the enemy. We can and should fight the enemy on its turf in an attempt to save lives and protect human dignity, but that is not where we are going to win the war. Ultimately, this war will not be won in Jefferson City nor Washington DC. This war will only be won on the battlefield of the heart.
The Church has the battle plan for this type of warfare. That battle plan can be summed up in one word: Solidarity. Pope Saint John Paul II defined solidarity as “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good”.
Solidarity, as described in the Catechism, enabled the Church to impel souls to the heroic charity of monastic farmers, liberators of slaves, healers of the sick, and messengers of faith, civilization, and science to all generations and all peoples for the sake of creating the social conditions capable of offering to everyone possible a life worthy of mankind and of a Christian.
Solidarity was the heroic virtue of many of the saints we venerate, including Maximilian Kolbe and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Both had the opportunity to escape death camps, but instead chose martyrdom by witnessing to the virtue of solidarity.
Solidarity is now the key to protecting human dignity from womb to tomb and unchaining the millions who are imprisoned by the delusional shackles of the enemy.
What must we do? First, keep praying. But also, I encourage you to actively reach out to others, especially those in our parish, who feel marginalized. I encourage you to help them fulfill their desires to have healthy interaction and nurturing relationships within our parish as a whole. I encourage you to help them exercise their right to participate in our community and fulfill their duty to seek the common good, irrespective of any apparent differences as defined by social norms.
When we allow ourselves to be defined by false identities of social norms, when we allow those false identities to define our sense of human dignity and self worth, it becomes very difficult to see the Truth. In that situation, it is very common to reject the Truth (sometimes in a very severe manner) when we are confronted by the Truth.
But that shell can be melted by love. It was melted for me, largely by this parish community. If that shell can be melted for me, it can be melted for the others in our community that desperately need the healing light of Christ in their lives.
In Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Pope Saint John Paul II said, “Solidarity helps us to see the ‘other’...to be made a sharer, on a par with ourselves, in the banquet of life to which all are equally invited by God. Hence the importance of reawakening the religious awareness of individuals and peoples.”
This is our opportunity to reach out and walk with someone on their journey with God. This is our opportunity to be an instrument that makes God’s love visible in the life of another.
According to one parishioner, there are those in our community that feel marginalized, and are afraid to come forward. If that describes you…if you sit among us, but feel unwelcomed, feel as though you don’t have a place, my heart truly bleeds for you. But, please know, you are not alone, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
To echo the infamous cry of Pope Saint John Paul II, “Do Not Be Afraid”. I don’t care what your politics are. I don’t care how you identify yourself. I don’t care how society has defined your dignity and worth. Please come forward. Let me see you. Let me hear your story. Let me know how God is at work in your life. Let’s together find true peace and healing that can only be found in the love of Christ.
Abortion and a whole slew of other intrinsic evils may now be enshrined in our state constitution under the guise of reproductive health care, but the battle is far from over. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “Evil may have its hour, but God will have His day.”
Now, perhaps more than ever, is the time to be a source of healing and of God’s merciful love to those who have fallen for the lies of secular humanism, those who have been victimized, marginalized, and imprisoned by the enemy of the Cross of Christ. Now is the time to meet them on the battlefield of the heart, not as a judge, but as a conduit for the conforming love of Jesus Christ.
Thanks be to God!
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