I don’t think you could have escaped hearing about next week’s elections even if you buried your head in the sand at the back of a cave in the middle of the desert. I don’t even know how many trees died to provide the constant mailers I’ve been receiving at the rectory for months now. Don’t worry, I’m not going to add to the ads for or against any candidate. I do, however, want to offer a few things to keep in mind, and I want to do it now so you have a little time to think about them before the elections.
As Catholics, we are called to be good citizens of the nations in which we live. (See Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13-17.) It is both our right and our duty to vote as citizens of this country. Archbishop Coakley, in the USCCB’s message for Election Day, writes, “In a time of deep political division, the temptation is to be discouraged and to not participate in the election process. But discouragement is not a Christian virtue. For citizens in a representative democracy such as our own, participation in public life—including voting—is both a right and a responsibility.”
As we vote, we need to be on guard against two temptations. One temptation is to give in to the fear and contempt rhetoric that has become so prominent in the current political discourse. Fear, contempt, division: these are tactics of the evil one. They play on our base emotions and cause us to make poorly considered decisions, because they short-circuit our ability to actually think. It’s why these tactics are effective, but it’s also why we must reject them. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves in Matthew 22:39, but that’s nearly impossible when we’ve demonized our neighbor as a grandparent-murdering, child-hating drug-pusher. (I’ve seen variations of these themes in various mailers I’ve received this year.) Look for the truth and allow it to guide you. It may take some work, but it will free you from the shackles of voting out of fear.
The second temptation is to turn politics into an idol. So many people spend every waking moment being worked up about some political matter. Political matters, to be fair, are important; however, they’re not that important. Many people have functionally ordered things in their head differently than they’d like to admit, and you can see it in their behavior. They will sacrifice nearly anything to win a political fight: friends, family, and even their relationship to God and the Church. But this is completely backwards, because it idolizes politics. I can’t remember the author, but this line summarizes the issue well: that for which you would sacrifice the most is, in effect, what you worship. God must be the one for whom we would be willing to sacrifice everything. Next comes our family. And only well beyond that would come the state, that is, the political. Our political views and works must be informed by our faith in God and our religious practice, not the other way around.
Our faith is more important than any political view, because our true citizenship, as Christians, is in Heaven. (Philippians 3:20) Our true King, as Catholics, is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As Pius XI wrote, “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.” (Quas primas §19)
Fr. Matt