Barking up the Wrong Tree

If we could get the right people elected, if we could get the right laws passed... This is looking in the wrong place, for the wrong answer. Jesus said there will always be poor people, and that we should help them. He did not say we should pass laws so that we don't have to get our hands dirty dealing with the poor ourselves, nor did He say that we should MAKE other people help them by force of government. It is for us to do. Jesus asked, "When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith?" Seemingly rhetorically telling us that things are going to get tough. He said we must take up our cross, an implement of torturous death, and follow Him. He did not say "things are looking up! It's only gonna get better from here!" Helping the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, burying the dead, these are the lot of Christians while at the same time suffering and persecution are the reward. Or do we think we deserve better than what they did to our God? Government is not the answer. Heaven will not come by Congress, the Courts, or the President. The answer is to look to Christ, to obey His commands, to live life in the Liturgy where we are sustained in this vale of tears. We need to raise our kids morally. We need, above all, to trust in God and remember our death. This gloomy portal is but the door to life eternal. Jesus said also that He has gone to prepare a place for us, and He will take us to Himself there in the Father's house. So let us cling to His promises, receive His Sacraments, teach our children in the way they should go, and look forward to our passage from death into life. Let us give up striving, anger, and anxiety about elections and legislatures, politicians and celebrities. Instead let us strive to serve our neighbor, to obtain and cultivate the Virtues, to see Christ in our fellow man, and to trust in God, Who loves us beyond all imagination!

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