From the meditation for November 4th in "Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI":


The election results we just learned have some of us disappointed, some of us depressed, and some of us filled with anxiety.  And fairly so - much of what we have preached, written, worked, and debated about, not just for the past year or so, but for the last few decades, seems to have been all but swept away for good.

During this election cycle, many of us have tried our hardest to draw more attention toward the plight of the unborn - trying to bring awareness to the fact of being on the precipice of either ending Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton or cementing it in our legislative and judicial system for another 2 or 3 decades. 

We have also attempted to bring about awareness of other life issues at stake, such as embryonic stem cell research.  We have tried to correct Catholics who were misled by the false teachings of Vice President-elect Biden and House Speaker Pelosi, who gave scandal by their interpretations of Church teachings regarding abortion.  Several of us drew attention to Planned Parenthood by peaceful, prayerful vigil outside their "clinics".  Several more of us fasted for 40 days, and many more prayed that Our Lady, the Queen of Victory and Patroness of the Americas, would guide our country to the fullness of God's will.

And now we feel let down - that our prayers, fasts, and sacrifices (of time and money) were for naught.

What these words of Pope Benedict tell us is this: the fight is not ours - it is the Lord's.  We are not to live in dependence upon our own actions, our own debates, our own votes - ultimate sovereignty lies with God, and He is plotting the course.  Whatever we see now as failure must be viewed through the lens of the Cross.  The death of the Messiah was viewed as the ultimate failure of Israel - the hope of Jerusalem was killed by the very same people of Jerusalem.

For us Christians, there is a happy (or rather, glorious) ending to this story - the Resurrection.  Jesus - the Christ, the Messiah, the Lord - came back from the dead, not because of the actions of Peter and the disciples (good or bad), or because of the weeping of the women at the foot of the cross, or because of the money of Joseph of Arimathea.  God came back from the dead because it was God's plan. 

Likewise, in the eternal view of things, the setbacks we faced in this election are forcing all of us to realize that we must be first of all dependent upon the manna from Heaven.  We prayed that God's will be done, just as Jesus prayed it in Gethsemane.  Now we must believe that our prayers were heard and are this very minute being answered and brought to fulfillment in ways we cannot yet see and cannot imagine.  Now is the time for Easter-like hope, even though we feel a loss akin to Good Friday.

If our worst fears are realized - if the Mexico City policy is revoked, the Freedom of Choice Act is put into law, and pro-abortion Supreme Court Justices are replaced with more pro-abortion Justices (what an oxymoron that term is) - then we must do as Christians have always done:  know that bad things happen to good people so that good people can be moved to do great things.  We must be the good people that do great things in the time of evil.  We must be the light in the darkness.  We must be more vigilant in our lives, more bold in proclaiming the Gospel, and more prayerful in our daily lives.

Amen?

God bless, protect, and keep you all