God Knew It...

and right now you are saying, "well, of course...He knows everything." but exactly what "it" am i speaking of. what else are people speaking of these days, the election. i have been amazed in the past when i have heard God speak to me from the readings or the Gospel at mass. i have sat in utter amazement just thinking "wow, He knew, back when the whole system of readings and stuff were being put in place...He knew what i would need, right now, years and years later." but, i have been even more amazed that He knew about this election. i know this shouldn't surprise me like it does, but i can't help it. i have sat astounded for the past four sundays at how the Gospel is speaking to our situation as a country. i'm sure that this has been coming home to me at an even deeper level thanks to the absolutely home run, straight out of the park homilies which our parish priest has been delivering during this time period. every week has been on life issues and every week he has made it abundantly clear that as catholics, we must stand up for the innocent life of the unborn above all. this is the value that must be put into place before anything else can ever hope to be set right. without this core knowledge, hope and belief in the intrinsic, God given value of life in each and every human being, no matter what the situation in which they are conceived, no matter what the situation which they will be born into and no matter what special hurdles they may be born with, nothing else will ever stand. i have been finding it rather frightening lately while listening to obama and his push for all sorts of "social justice." i seem to remember this man who spoke elegantly about social reform for the good of the people and spreading the wealth around. and in my daughter's schoolwork we have been reading an awful lot about this man who was started a civilian militia which aided in the "re-education" of the people. and we all know what happened in both of those situations. and before people get all up in arms, no, i'm not calling obama "hitler" or "mao." but, let's just say i having been finding some very frightening parallels in policy design. but, essentially it boils down to, without the core belief that all people, no matter what, are created by God and deserve a chance to live, it all begins to fold. it has to. it has nowhere to stand, nowhere to lay it's head. all of the social policy, the antiwar rhetoric and the "for the common good" is a castle built on the sand. it has no foundation, so it will collapse in on itself and take all who dwell within with it.

this past summer we attended a different parish than usual one saturday evening and the priest began his homily by speaking of freedoms. he said how especially people in the united states believe that we have so many freedoms, which we do. but, gradually, day by day, year by year, we are giving those freedoms away. we are relinquishing them to what is "progressive," what is "the majority." every time we lose sight of what is true, what is good, what is holy and take a step away from Him, we lose another freedom. truth is what sets you free and i dare say this is one which we step further and further away from every day. in this same homily this priest spoke of Jesus giving peter the keys to the kingdom. he then asked if we believed God trusted us enough to give us the keys to the kingdom. and then he said, "to those of you who have children...He already has." this is the truth we are missing. other people...especially unborn ones...are the keys to the truth this country needs. they are not a problem, a burden, a mistake. they are the key. God gives the gift of a child and so many find that gift inconvenient, a burden, a problem. they find that maybe that gift isn't wrapped exactly as they think it should be because it is possible that it may have a disability. and frankly, when we do this we are just playing the rude little child at christmas that everybody hates who says, "this isn't what i wanted!" and goes off to pout and whine in the corner. it's time to cut the "i should get everything i want, exactly how i want it and only when i want it" crap and grow up.

so, with all of this being said, it has been a blessing for me that the month leading up to the election is respect life month. and, i am blessed enough to be a part of a parish where our priest has chosen to preach each week of this month on a different life issue. one week he led the congregation to paragraph 1849 in the catechism of the catholic church. the first part of this paragraph reads like this,

"Sin is an offense against reason, truth
and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor
caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods."

maybe i'm reading this wrong but i see that "perverse attachment to certain goods" in those who are choosing to vote for obama. this can especially be seen in those who actually seem to believe that a vote for obama is a vote for pro-life. they may have an attachment to social welfare or education or the war. but like i said before, through this attachment to something other than the basic kernel of life, they are mistaken.

a few weeks ago i was willing to throw in the towel, to say enough is enough and watch obama win. i've changed my mind. i am getting tired of wading through the manure that the media parades as the truth. i am sick of the skewed and sometimes downright false "facts," the underhanded motives that drive newspaper articles and the fact that most of the media has been campaigning for obama since the beginning under the guise of truth in reporting. i hate all of it and frankly have only found a few sites that i think, just maybe, i can trust to get the truth. but i am not tired of hoping, praying and working for the truth. in fact, today i threw all caution to the wind and met some others from our parish at the noon mass and followed it up with a rosary prayed for the intention of this election on front steps. it felt good to unite with others in prayer and it helped to quiet my heart a bit. on the way to a friend's house afterward my oldest daughter said that she wished she could do something. i told her that she could. she could pray. and that is a very important something. she then said that it just seemed like alot of people were going to vote for obama. i agreed but told her that is no reason for us to stop praying for a miracle because it is sure that God will work this out in accord with His plan. and then, i had to make sure that i reminded her that even if obama wins, we still have to know that God heard our prayers and that He has a plan for all of this. in reply, she exhibited such a grown up understanding when she said, "so it could be kind of like joseph." i was a little confused and asked her to explain. she said that with joseph, God brought good out of the bad. He took the evil that joseph's brothers committed and used it to save a people. what an observation. out of the mouth's of babes, right?

so, i will be praying without ceasing again tomorrow. please pray with me. pray for our children, our freedom and our country.