Welcome to November, and a blessed feast of All Saints! November is becoming my favorite month because of the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. The older I get, the more clearly I perceive the Life of the World to Come, and the more I long to join the vast numbers who have crossed over the waters of death ahead of me. They now live within a joy we cannot possibly imagine.
But, truth to tell, we have “miles to go before we sleep” (Robert Frost, despite his human limitations, is still one of my favorite poets). We still have work here on earth, among which is ordering our lives together. We must work to be “united states,” which is working against a strong headwind these days. That which unites people is a power higher than themselves, and Americans have come to imagine we are the work of our own hands. Left to ourselves, we will destroy each other. Only if we understand ourselves as children of a beneficent Father in Heaven can we stop bickering and attacking each other.
I want to vote for Jesus Christ for president, but alas He didn’t make it past the primaries. I want to vote for the saints: Teresa of Avila for Mayor of San Francisco, Elizabeth Seton for President of San Francisco Unified School District, Pier Giorgio Frassati for Governor of California, and Gregory the Great for President of the United States. Alas, none of them has thrown in their hats. We must, tragically, vote for lesser leaders. But those we vote for must be in some measure “saints”—those most likely to acknowledge “the laws of nature and of Nature’s God” (from the first lines of our Declaration of Independence).
If you haven’t voted yet, I remind you that voting is a Catholic duty, and voting for the candidate most likely to promote Gospel principles is also a Catholic duty. I hear from many people their anxiety and depression, even their panic, at our steeply worsening political situation. I give the same advice to everyone: stop watching the news. It’s designed by very smart individuals to keep us in fear. Of course, the media industry sensationalizes everything as clickbait, to make money on our “fear of missing out.” But keeping people in fear is easily used by darker intentions to keep us securely within their control. Terror has always been the weapon of choice for totalitarian power, from Nazis to Soviets to Islamicists. If I can keep you in fear, I can keep you in my control, especially if you believe that “only I can save you.”
We Catholics certainly do believe that “only I can save you,” but that “I” is not CNN or the federal government or the tech industry. Only God can save us, and the farther we walk from God the worse it gets for all of us. Only Jesus Christ can save us, and he does so not through terror, but through love. So, dear people, do not be afraid. Only He can save us, and He will! No political collapse can undo His will. In the end, the most powerful on earth will die, but the Word of God will remain.
So stop watching “the news,” and keep your eyes on the Good News. Read the Scriptures, and read the lives of the saints, and read good classic literature, not the scare tactics of the enemy. Not even Kamala Harris, not even Donald Trump, and not even George Soros or Bill Gates is stronger than God. We are in the almighty and loving hands of God, so let’s stay there, and refuse to be frightened.
But, truth to tell, we have “miles to go before we sleep” (Robert Frost, despite his human limitations, is still one of my favorite poets). We still have work here on earth, among which is ordering our lives together. We must work to be “united states,” which is working against a strong headwind these days. That which unites people is a power higher than themselves, and Americans have come to imagine we are the work of our own hands. Left to ourselves, we will destroy each other. Only if we understand ourselves as children of a beneficent Father in Heaven can we stop bickering and attacking each other.
I want to vote for Jesus Christ for president, but alas He didn’t make it past the primaries. I want to vote for the saints: Teresa of Avila for Mayor of San Francisco, Elizabeth Seton for President of San Francisco Unified School District, Pier Giorgio Frassati for Governor of California, and Gregory the Great for President of the United States. Alas, none of them has thrown in their hats. We must, tragically, vote for lesser leaders. But those we vote for must be in some measure “saints”—those most likely to acknowledge “the laws of nature and of Nature’s God” (from the first lines of our Declaration of Independence).
If you haven’t voted yet, I remind you that voting is a Catholic duty, and voting for the candidate most likely to promote Gospel principles is also a Catholic duty. I hear from many people their anxiety and depression, even their panic, at our steeply worsening political situation. I give the same advice to everyone: stop watching the news. It’s designed by very smart individuals to keep us in fear. Of course, the media industry sensationalizes everything as clickbait, to make money on our “fear of missing out.” But keeping people in fear is easily used by darker intentions to keep us securely within their control. Terror has always been the weapon of choice for totalitarian power, from Nazis to Soviets to Islamicists. If I can keep you in fear, I can keep you in my control, especially if you believe that “only I can save you.”
We Catholics certainly do believe that “only I can save you,” but that “I” is not CNN or the federal government or the tech industry. Only God can save us, and the farther we walk from God the worse it gets for all of us. Only Jesus Christ can save us, and he does so not through terror, but through love. So, dear people, do not be afraid. Only He can save us, and He will! No political collapse can undo His will. In the end, the most powerful on earth will die, but the Word of God will remain.
So stop watching “the news,” and keep your eyes on the Good News. Read the Scriptures, and read the lives of the saints, and read good classic literature, not the scare tactics of the enemy. Not even Kamala Harris, not even Donald Trump, and not even George Soros or Bill Gates is stronger than God. We are in the almighty and loving hands of God, so let’s stay there, and refuse to be frightened.
Mr. Frassati in his father's office, c. 1920
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