On Jan 6th of 2021, protestors stormed the Capital Building in Washington D.C. while both houses of Congress were certifying the election of the presidency. This post/reflection was written in the middle of the chaos and was in response to both my own personal anxiety over things. Along with the reactions from people on social media. I present this post as it was originally written on FB. -JM
It is way too easy to give into the fear and hysteria that we have seen played before our eyes. At the end of the day it doesn't matter *who* (or which group) is causing the insurrection today. That doesn't make it any less wrong. What happened today was travesty in our society. For a nation that wants to be progressive we clearly have gone in the wrong direction.
The hardest truth to accept is that in some ways this constant bickering and not being able to have a reasonable disagreement with someone has added fuel to these fires. We have lost sense of how to debate and how to disagree with out it turning it into something it shouldn't: A name calling slug fest where friendships are broken. If this was truly a progressive society then such disagreements would not lead to open conflict of this nature. We as society have lost our ability to have a reasonable debate with someone we may not agree with. To the point that ability may never come back.
To me a lot of it stems from the fact that we have in so many ways abandoned Christ. We turn our politics and at times the very church into idols to be worshiped. So many times we have let our vision of what Christ should be taint our perceptions to the point that the Church is no longer what it was intended. We dive into our camps and groups and wave the flags and yet what does that accomplish? Instead of coming together unified we spend our days pointing out the splinter in the other person's eye while ignoring the 2x4 in ours.
Pause. Step back from our screens for a while and let our hearts calm down. More so if our anxiety is getting the better of us.
Reflect. Focus on why we are followers of Christ. On what Christ means to us and what the Church (in my case Catholic) is about.
Pray. That we would follow the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit instead of our own desires and wants. That we should truly be open to what God is asking of us.
Then when all that is done. We follow though on what we have learned. Picking up our Cross and committing our lives in service of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
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