America: Is This One Last Chance?

President-elect Trump continues to build and staff his Cabinet, but the stunned shock of defeat postponed only briefly a seething rage among the humiliated “progressive” Democrats. They are now regaining a counter-offensive with bold if shallow threats and prideful promises. Meanwhile, I stand amazed at the miracle that – contrary to almost universal expectation and most of the polls and expert predictions – Mrs. Clinton and the Democrats did not win the election.

Yes I believe it was a miracle! I believe God intervened because of the prayers of His faithful ones. When I reflect on the damage that would have been inflicted on the nation by the Clinton machine, the corruption that would have even deeper and established even more firmly in our economy, our systems of justice, of education, of health, of immigration – indeed our democratic republic itself, I see how close we came to the precipice. And the damage would not have been merely secular, and so to speak external. No, the threat was to the very soul of the nation – the meaning of America – the very beautiful and Spirit-led heart of the founding principles and defining documents of the Republic. “One nation under God” was a principle one president away from being erased completely from the conscience of the nation, and God Himself saved us from falling. He held us back from the precipice; He kept us from the fall.

It used to be very different, in the America I grew up in. America was great because America was good, with a simple and beautiful goodness that we received from the hand and the heart of God. Ours was a culture of respect for the moral good, and the truth of divine revelation. We became a strong nation because the fear of God was real among us, and within us. We were not all saints, certainly, but God was acknowledged among the simple and the educated, among the rich and the poor – among the lawful and the criminals as well. Justice was believed in, and honored. Truth was important; hard work was rewarded and crime was punished. It was common for Sunday to be the day for worship, and for prayer, and for family. Priests and ministers were respected, as was marriage, as was one’s name and one’s word and promises. Along the way, America, we have lost a great deal. Where was the Church, as it was all slowly and gradually changing?

Do you know how close we came to losing this nation – to putting this nation of laws, with a Constitution to protect us and our human rights, into the hands of lawless Judges who feel free to make up laws and rights as they see fit? Do you know how close we still are to falling so far from “One nation under God” to a fragmented, shattered confederation of hostile tribes and identity groups under an all-powerful federal rule by whim and imperial fiat? The Lord has been very patient with us, His Church, as the darkness of the world around us continued to grow only darker.

I believe this, however, concerning the Church: He is giving His Church one more chance. He is God and I am not, and I don’t know that I personally would have given us another chance, so prodigal have we been with our blessings. But He is God and He has given us this one more chance to be who we are, and to be what we are sent to be: Light! We are sent to be His holy light in this dark world.

Where has the Church been, through the decades when this nation was in such grave moral decline? The nation morphed from a culture of life to a culture of death – from a predominantly Judeo-Christian nation to a predominantly materialistic and godless one. The light of revealed truth – even the light of the natural moral law – has been receding, dimming, fading into the horizon while an amoral darkness has begun to envelop the country. Barbarism, cruelty, animal-like inhumanity has crept in. And where has the Church been, as this enemy of souls was infiltrating every facet and corner of America? What has the Church been doing, instead of her holy mission? Whom has she been serving, when she was not serving her Lord and God? What have our parishes and pulpits been occupied with, when they were not occupied with the upbuilding of her people in holiness, and nurturing them toward the fulness and the maturity of Christ?

The more pressing question is, what will we do now? Will we seek holiness, as is our vocation? Will we be light, as is our mission? Will we be witnesses, as we are sent to be, of His life-giving Spirit? Will we see the one door open before us – the door that may be the last chance we will have – to seek His will and do it? Will we pray with all our hearts to do His will no matter the cost? Will we offer Him all that He has entrusted to us, in hope that He may use it, and us, for the glory of His work in this His creation? Thy Kingdom come, Father! Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name.

Thomas Richard, 11/21/2016