Hope amidst chaos

WRITING in The Catholic Thing on Sunday, Canadian columnist David Warren discussed the fallout of America’s election. In his view the election signalled that “we are now complete foreigners in this North American culture.”

Some excerpts:

I wonder how many Americans, on the morning of November 7th, got up feeling something terrible had happened. From a number of my Republican friends, I got this impression. It wasn’t the same as 2008, when they got up feeling they’d lost the election.

It was instead a feeling of being surrounded by people who don’t get the point, who didn’t grasp the stakes, who let something pass. The people had now voted explicitly to go over the “fiscal cliff,” to accept ObamaCare as a new way of life, with the destruction of Catholic institutions, etc.

And there’d be no going back. America was the last place on Earth where the people did not accept being pushed around, being changed by social engineering. They’d taken pride in this.

But now America is an occupied country.

…

It is against this background reality that the Church’s mission now proceeds. Pope Benedict understands this, though I’m not sure many of his bishops do: that we are now complete foreigners in this North American culture, as throughout the post-modern West; that we are Gershom, strangers in a strange land; that we are mustard seeds again.

Besides the re-election of a President who’s both strongly pro-abortion and intent on curtailing Christians’ religious freedoms, the most devastating result of Nov. 6th was the passage of same-sex “marriage” in Maine, Maryland, and Washington state.

Same-sex “marriage” had already passed in six states, either in the legislature or by judicial fiat,  but never before had it won when it was put to a popular vote. Up until now, pro-marriage advocates had won all 32 state referenda on same-sex “marriage” going back to 1998.

Sadly, I think Warren is right on this point as well:

My own sense was that, as soon as even one such referendum is lost, by the tiniest margin, anywhere, the game is over. The other side has won. Within a moment of historical time, a majority of Americans will now find same-sex marriage acceptable. They may not actually like it, but they will keep this to themselves. Irritation will now be focused upon those still trying to resist “the inevitable.”

So long as we could point to that 32-0 victory record, we could stave off that feeling of inevitability. Though I believe strongly we are winning public opinion on abortion, all the evidence I’ve seen suggests we are losing, badly, on homosexuality and marriage. Of course, that’s old news to my readers from Canada, where we’ve had same-sex “marriage” since 2005.

I might be sounding defeatist or pessimistic to some people, but authentic Christian hope must be realistic about the surrounding landscape. Our hope is rooted in Christ, not the blustering winds of the age. The martyrs of the Colosseum sang out songs of praise even as they were fed to the lions.

O my God, relying on your almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon for my sins, the help of your grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.