We Are Soldiers of Christ

There is a difference between being Catholic and calling yourself Catholic. For example, you can call yourself a millionaire but unless you have a million dollars then you aren’t a millionaire in reality but in name only.  It’s the same with being Catholic. You can call yourself Catholic, but unless Jesus is the Lord of your life, you are not a Catholic in reality but in name only (or by baptism only).

Many of us are feeling the defeat and sorrow of the election this past Tuesday.  What we really need to do is take the time to see and understand  that God allows all things to happen. He wills all things, except sin. There is a great book that explains this way better than I can called “Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret of Peace and Happiness”, and I highly recommend reading it, especially if you feel like throwing something at me by the time you finish reading this post.  There are two parts of every action: the good that God wills and the intent of the person that He is using as His instrument. The intent of each of us is ours to own and be held accountable for.

What we have to do now is pick ourselves up and move on with our fight. Nobody can ever blame a Catholic for voting their well-formed (key words being well-formed) conscience. It is mine; I have to answer to God for it, not to you nor anyone else.  If God had willed for Obama to be beaten then he would have been. We need to quit talking out of panicked fear. If God is as great as we all claim He is, then we should start talking and acting like it, instead of like panic stricken pansies. Some of the things I’m reading reminds me of the disciples who all fell asleep FIRST then ran away from the garden in fear when Jesus was arrested. First, we as a Church fell asleep and didn’t teach people the teachings of the Church and then when we see the state of our culture we run around in a panic over ONE election. Let’s get a hold of ourselves and calm down.

We need to pick up our rosaries and start changing the culture around us. First and foremost we begin by conforming ourselves to the Will of God and not our own will. If we wanted Romney to win the election, we need to let it go of that want. Let go of the idea that Romney would have been better, and quit pointing the finger at others by fault finding.  God was not asleep on Tuesday. He was in control, and He allowed Obama to win. That doesn’t mean that it is God’s will for Obama to work so hard to kill the unborn, that is his free will and he will be held accountable for his actions just like the rest of us. God is a just God. To say that “Romney should have won” is questioning the Providence of God while doubting His goodness. That is what the fallen angels did. They doubted God’s goodness and His Wisdom in His plans to create man and then become a man to save us. They thought they knew better than God; that God doesn’t know what He is doing. That is what led to their fall and it is what will lead us to ours.

We can and should be sorrowful for the moral decay of the world around us. We should mourn the souls that are lost. We should cry for our family that will probably fall to the evil of this world. The way to fight that evil is to make ourselves holy. To be the best Catholics that we can be, and help those around us be the best Catholics they can be. If you are sitting there reading this thinking that you are already the best Catholic you can be, then I have news for you- you aren’t.  Neither am I. I am far, far, far from it. Conversion begins within ourselves though. We can’t give anyone something that we don’t have. By God’s grace we can grow in holiness and then reach out to love our family. Afterward go ask your neighbor if there is anything you can do for them. All of your neighbors, even the ones with Obama signs in the front yard. I’d say if you REALLY want to be a saint that you start with those neighbors.

This fight is far from over. Things are very likely going to get worse (and I’d say they are going to get worse really fast, but that could be me panicking.) We are going to lose some soldiers to the lies of the evil one. There will be souls lost. But thank God that our faith and hope lies in the knowledge that God is with us. We know who wins in the end. We know that Heaven awaits us. Let us pray as St. Paul did, that we persevere and finish this race and make it HOME. This isn’t our home, this world is not where we belong.

We are soldiers of Christ. Let’s pick ourselves up and act like it. Soldiers of Christ do not need the validation of this world. We look at the Cross for our validation.

Finally I’ll leave you with this quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen:

“What our Lord said to Judas, he says to the world today: You seemingly are very interested in social justice. Why are you not concerned about individual justice? You love your neighbor; why do you not love God? This is the attitude of the world today. We have swung away from a period in which we were concerned with individual sanctification to the neglect of the social order. Now we have gone to the extreme of being immersed with social justice, civil rights, and so forth, and we are not the least bit concerned about individual justice and the duty of paying honor and glory to God. If you march with a banner, if you protest, then your individual life may be impure, alcoholic, anything you please. That does not matter, Judas is the patron saint of those who divide that universal law of God: Love God and love neighbor.”

—Venerable Fulton J. Sheen