The other day, I read an Op-ed in the Washington Post, in which the author begged the Almighty to speak to the President. I read it, and thought it sincere. Prayer does that. When we begin to speak to God, or even when we to pretend to do so, we often find ourselves actually speaking to God. It is each heart’s orientation whether we recognize it or not. The truth of our hearts will out.
Every moment we recognize something beyond ourselves, is a response to God’s presence, God’s grace. Every sacrifice is counted towards the reparations for sins, and every act of kindness, a gift on the altar to our Lord. The author of the article perhaps did not intend to fully pour out her heart but she did. I reread her words –and the hallmarks of faith were there even if I did not agree with everything. For example, I think we are constantly building the Tower of Babel with how we refuse to understand each other, where she held out hope that because we can collaborate and communicate that the Tower of Babel is no more. As a side note, I pray she didn’t read the comments, as they might dishearten.
On Sunday, we attended mass at our secondary parish –the one with easier mass times in the summer when teens are hard to wake. The closing hymn turned out to be “America the Beautiful,” appropriate for the weekend following Independence day. My youngest looked at the words, using her finger to follow along so her brother could see them. However, she refused to sing, saying, “I don’t like to sing.” I worried for a moment about her reticence.
This age is marked by a hyper critical spirit, which often dismisses people, companies, nations, singers, all sorts of things if something the said subject says or does is deemed unforgivable. I do not call it the “cancel culture.” Rather I suspect it is the sin of holding people, places and things, unforgivable, of weighing, measuring and finding others wanting. Love means being willing to work with people and even organizations of people who do not hold all that we individually or collectively hold if we are working for a common good or goal.
It’s not in prosperity, but in peacefulness that this nation becomes a shining city on the hill. Economics alone do not generate joy or warmth or fullness in the the hearts or even the belly. The bellies will be empty again tomorrow, and eventually the hearts will recognize that something is lacking, and spend lifetimes seeking to discern what that lack is, or stuffing that hole with everything the world has in an attempt to pretend the hole isn’t there. America grounded in freedom and welcoming kindness is the vision, not three hundred and fifty-five million millionaires with homes that allow no one in, and never go out.
Forbearance is part of holiness and it is necessary oxygen for a peaceful and happy society that neither ignores the differences in people, nor condemns them for those differences. I worried her resistance to singing reflected a hyperfocus on our nation’s trials, failures and sins, rather than a discomfort with singing itself. However grace works and the words, “God mend thy every flaw,” spoke to her young heart. She sang the rest of it from that point forward. The cynicism that often coats a young teen’s face melted into a smile. I do not know that she planned to sing but did find herself singing.
My own heart felt fireworks at hearing her voice. Her heart praying to God’s.
We cannot be a people of hope if we aren’t willing to dream lofty dreams, like going to the moon, eliminating visible and tangible signs and scars of racism if we cannot move all hearts, and establishing a society that seeks to be just, kind, merciful and freeing of its citizens. Our nation is supposed to be a place of opportunity and hope, that dreams beyond wherever we are, to something better that while not fully obtainable in this life, should be sought. This sort of visioning, of what we could be, is not articulated these days by our leaders or those who seek leadership, so it must come from us, the huddled masses, the laity if you will of the nation.
Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, protector of the Americas including us in the US.
Let us pray for this country to listen to the better angels of our nature, and to roll up our sleeves to show ourselves, our neighbors and the world it’s possible. “God mend our every flaw, and crown our good in brotherhood, our liberty in awe.”
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