22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time A (Jer. 20:7-9; Rom. 12:1-2; Matt. 16:21-27)
In today’s Gospel, the disciples hear Jesus reveal God’s will for Him. He will “suffer greatly,” be “killed,” and “on the third day be raised.” Peter, our dear, impetuous Peter, immediately takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke Him. Perhaps, Peter did not hear the words “on the third day be raised.” Do we hear what God tells us? Do we hear the teachings of Holy Mother Church? Do we hear St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, today’s second reading, tell us: “Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” In just over two months, we will have to decide what the Church teachings are, how well we have formed our consciences, and what our duties are in the coming election. Once again, we will be called to make some choices – choices for whom to vote in the coming national, state, and local elections. You may ask, why is Deacon Bob talking about politics at Mass? I assure you now, that I am not. However, I firmly believe that, as good Catholics, we are called to exercise our right to vote within the teachings of our faith. I also believe that many of us do not know what the statement “to exercise our right to vote within the teachings of our faith” means. The first question many people ask as an election approaches is, “Why should I vote?” Why? Because the Church teaches that all citizens have three primary responsibilities as citizens: to pay taxes to defend their country to vote (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2240) The Church doesn’t tell us for whom we should vote when we enter the voting booth. Instead, Catholics are to use their judgment and follow their consciences as they apply the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the core values of their faith to the choices they make in the voting booth. As Catholics who follow the call to discipleship, we need to evaluate the issues and candidates in the light of our Catholic faith. Then we are challenged to live out our faith by getting actively involved – by voting and engaging in other civic activities. We are taught from an early age to form our consciences in light of our Catholic teaching. “To follow one’s conscience” is often misunderstood as something that allows us to do whatever we want, or the “feeling” we have that something is right or wrong. But our faith teaches us that conscience is the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us and calling us to do what is good while shunning what is evil. There are absolute truths in the life of faith. It is our responsibility as Catholics to form our consciences by developing a willingness and openness to seek what is right through studying Scripture and Church teaching by using our reason to study key issues in light of this teaching by prayerfully seeking to understand the will of God. Can the Church ask me to vote according to my Catholic principles? Absolutely! Our nation’s founders sought to separate church and state in the sense of prohibiting the establishment of any particular denomination as the official religious body of the nation – not in the sense of forbidding religious organizations addressing matters of grave importance to human welfare. Building upon Scripture and the teachings of Church leaders and saints for centuries, our faith has clear principles for how best to achieve justice, peace, and human dignity for all men and women. Moreover, the Catholic moral tradition rests firmly on natural law binding upon everyone, not just Catholics. By now, you are probably asking what all this means in simple terms. To help clarify that, I would like to refer to a letter about conditions in our country written on June 7th of this year by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former Papal Nuncio to the United States. I quote:
“In recent months we have been witnessing the formation of two opposing sides that I would call Biblical: the children of light and the children of darkness. The children of light constitute the most conspicuous part of humanity, while the children of darkness represent an absolute minority. And yet the former (the children of light) are the object of a sort of discrimination which places them in a situation of moral inferiority with respect to their adversaries, who often hold strategic positions in government, in politics, in the economy and in the media. In an apparently inexplicable way, the good are held hostage by the wicked and by those who help them (the wicked) either out of self-interest or fearfulness. These two sides, which have a Biblical nature, follow the clear separation between the offspring of the Woman and the offspring of the serpent. On the one hand there are those who, although they have a thousand defects and weaknesses, are motivated by the desire to do good, to be honest, to raise a family, to engage in work, to give prosperity to their homeland, to help the needy, and, in obedience to the Law of God, to merit the Kingdom of Heaven. On the other hand, there are those who serve themselves, who do not hold on to any moral principles, who want to demolish the family and the nation, exploit workers to make themselves unduly wealthy, foment internal divisions and wars, and accumulate power and money.” End quote.
Archbishop Vigano goes on to state that the media “does not want to spread the truth but seeks to silence and distort it, spreading the lie that is useful for the purposes of their masters.” What does this mean to you and me as Catholic voters? It means we must study the issues and stands of the various parties and candidates. It means we must realize that some evils are more grievous than others, for example, a candidate who professes to be for aiding the poor but is pro-abortion is a much poorer choice than a candidate who is pro-life and is not strong on aid to the poor. It means that we cannot trust the media to tell us the truth about a party’s or a candidate’s position on issues, especially if we only listen to soundbites on the nightly news. It means we have to research what has been done by the party or candidate and not just go by what we are told. It means that we cannot vote for the candidates of a party because we have always voted for that party or because some group to which we belong has told us to vote for them. It means we have two months to learn what we need to know. There are two kinds of slavery in this world – the physical slavery for the end of which this nation engaged in a great war that ended one hundred and fifty-five years ago and there is the slavery of giving up our lives and our freedom to the children of darkness. So, my dear friends, as you make your choices in the coming election, make them in line with what you have learned about the candidates and issues in accordance with the teachings of the Church and your well-formed conscience; then, you will store up for yourselves lasting wealth as we participate fully in our country by participating fully in the life of God.