Gospel Reflections for November 4 2018
What is your policy on…?
If you had the chance, what question would you ask a politician running in this year’s election? Would you ask about Immigration, or the economy, or education, or healthcare, or about foreign policy? I am sure you would have good questions, but perhaps you might also wonder, “Would I believe the answer!”
What every politician says is important, and as good citizens we should know their policies well, but perhaps assessing their credibility is more difficult to know. While it is hard to understand all issues well, I think it is more important to know a politician’s credibility. We may not understand their answer but can we trust and believe the person saying it?
Unfortunately, we do not have a “credibility machine” that we can hook up to candidates to measure their honesty accurately. That would certainly save a lot of time!
One person walks up to Jesus in today’s Gospel to ask his policy on the most important issue of his day (and our day as well). “What does God want me to do?” With remarkable clarity and wisdom, Jesus instantly summarizes thousands of Old Testament laws, as well as the Ten Commandments, into two easy-to-remember policies: Love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
This is a policy that we can support and from a person that has perfect credibility and integrity. We may not understand His answer well but we can certainly trust that Jesus is from God.
Therefore I will support any politician that comes closest to Our Lord’s policy and integrity as well.
We believe that our Catholic faith is the fullest revelation of what God intended for our happiness and closest to the way that God designed for our fulfillment. Any politician or policy that makes this happiness as God designed easier for us …well, I’m for it!
We also believe that Catholics are responsible citizens with something good and helpful to say to our society, and so we never miss a chance to vote. We do not have much room to complain afterwards if we have not voted.
Our national founding document, the Declaration of Independence, affirms that our right to speak and vote in political affairs derives directly from God, and not from any person or government. We are good Catholics when we speak our mind through our vote.
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
I pray that our political leaders will always keep Christian values as their primary guide, just as our forefathers did when our Country was first formed.
I am not sure that we will ever have again the collection of leaders we had at the founding of our country. Justice Scalia, before he passed away, said that, and I tend to agree with him. It was a remarkable perfect storm of goodness and intellect that founded the USA.
We need our faith & morals of our country continue to be a strong that’s what has made America strong! We need to expect that from our future politicians!! We need to continue to pray for our country…
Never stop praying for our country! We need it now for sure.
In this time of division and hatred, we ask the Holy Spirit to guide us to vote
for the people who will do what is best for our country.
Come Holy Spirit!
May God help and guide us all, Catholic Christians and non Catholics,
that we vote for candidates that will help build bridges for the common good among peoples of this beautiful country.
Yes, well said!
Love your neighbor as yourself…. Interesting… The main thing on my mind here is that sometimes we don”t love ourselves so how can we love our neighbor,. Oh I wish I had hair like so and so, or I wish I could speak as well as another or I am not as smart as another . I think I had been pretty bad about this as I didn’t measure up to my sisters. However, it is coming to the conclusion that God made me and you just as we are and we need to appreciate the gifts that He has given to us not what we don’t have. We need to choose to love ourselves just as we are. Enough said…
I am also praying for right decisions in this coming election. We have had some rough times in our country and I am praying that I and everyone else would hear from God what God wants.
I think you understood this Gospel perfectly. Well done.
Dear Father Dave,
Americans are witnessing and living through what we might call political mayhem. There have always been pockets of extremism but for the most part these groups have remained hidden from mainstream thinking. It’s not true anymore.
Father Dave you are so on target with your summary. We need to pray and vote.
God bless you.
Kathleen
Yes, pray before we do anything important.
I pray for equal access to healthcare. My family lost a dear friend over the weekend to complications from pancreatitis. Several hospitals rejected him because of his insurance. Cedars Sinai accepted him for admission; however, critical time was lost in the process. Sadly our friend started to succumb as his vitals began shutting down. It is not only our patriotic, but moral and spiritual duty to vote and speak out against the injustice and inequities in some of our laws.
Yes, Catholics must always speak out for justice and especially caring for those who are sick.There is nothing more complicated than healthcare but, nevertheless, we must continue to find the right path.