By the time this column is read the
Wisconsin recall election will be history.
About half the state will be celebrating and the other half will be
trying to understand what happened and why as well as trying to rub some salve
into their wounds.
Whatever the outcome, one thing that I
truly hope does not happen is another endless round of recriminations and
breast beating over how the results of this election are a disaster of epic
proportions for the state, the country, and all of the civilized world. We don’t need more stalling from the losers or
crowing about “mandates” and “I told you so” from the victors. Governing is serious business and a sacred
trust. Now is the time to recognize the
signs of the times and then get busy with the business of healing the many
relationships that have been strained or even broken over these past two years.
We must always remember that life is
ultimately about relationships – first with God, and then with our
neighbor. As we continue in the month
dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we must recognize – as if our very
salvation depended on it – that charity, “love”, is the first and last criteria
by which we will be judged for entry into eternal happiness. Wait!
OUR SALVATION DOES DEPEND ON IT!
So, wherever you came down on the issues
at stake, if the past several months have strained any of your relationships,
shake it off – even if it hurt – and let us be a community that is recognized, by our love for one another,
as belonging to Christ. That is, after all, how Christ said we would
be recognized. It is also that to which
He gave witness from the throne of his holy cross!
Sunday, June 10, we celebrate the Feast of Corpus
Christi – the Body and Blood of Christ.
This feast, in which we recognize the reality of Christ’s presence in
the Eucharist, not in some fuzzy, spiritual sense, but rather in a sacramental
and very real sense, is particularly appropriate and providential as we seek to
come together in love. Think about what
Christ suffered in order to bring us this gift of love, this gift of communion
with Him, and through Him – with the Most Blessed Trinity.
As I mentioned above, Christ has given us an
example of being a true and living witness to the virtue of Love (charity) from his holy cross. The sacrifice of the cross is made present to
us in the most holy Eucharist. Thus, in
our reception of this most Blessed Sacrament, we are incorporated into
something more than a fuzzy sense of mystery.
We are in fact incorporated into the Body of Christ with all of its
resurrected glory as well as its human suffering. In this most Blessed Sacrament we are given
the grace to make Christ’s own response to persecution and suffering present in
our very difficult reality.
Having been given this grace through the
most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, it becomes incumbent upon us to use
the power of this grace well and for the purpose for which it was given – that
is, for the salvation of the world through the continuing and ever more perfect
establishment of Christ’s Kingdom of Love within it. Not always an easy thing to do. However, I’m sure all will agree that it is
the truly necessary thing to do!
