Candy Collectors on Beggars Night
theophilus October 31st, 2008
Just got back from taking my candy collectors out on Beggars Night – or at least that is the new terminology used by our suburban newspaper. Go figure.
Today is, of course, the last day of October – the Month of the Holy Rosary. And I’m thrilled that I somehow prayed the Rosary every day this month. It’s the longest stretch I’ve ever managed and I have found a peace and trust that was alluding me as October dawned.
Throughout October, I have found myself becoming more devotional and committed to my conversation with God. I’m not exactly praying morning, noon and night; but I have stepped up my prayer life in a way I never thought would be possible or necessary.
I have fasted at times, been more attentive at Mass and more focused at Eucharistic Adoration. I’ve prayed the novenas flying around the blogosphere. I’ve prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet. I’ve been more contemplative in praying the Liturgy of the Hours.
And I do believe that all of these attempts to talk to and hear from God are necessary. This nation, this Shining City on a Hill, is at a point where we will either become a nation continually blessed by God or one separated from him.
Sometime ago, we started interpreting freedom of religion as being the exclusion of religion. Some started talking about the separation of church and state and their talk began sounding more like they wanted a separation of God from public life altogether.
And once we started to separate God from our public life, he started disappearing from our private lives as well. The result has been a culture so toxic and so broken that it has left debris everywhere from the Baby Boomers to each successive generation. Our teenagers are now only starting to pay their price for our misplaced priorities.
So, what do we do? We pray, and then pray, and then pray some more. We recognize our individual guilt in the worsening of our culture; whether that guilt is direct or indirect, by commission or omission.
I’ve been praying the past few weeks for forgiveness. I’m not a bad person. I’ve done my best to not support a culture gone wrong. But have I done enough? Have I allowed myself to financially support, either directly or indirectly, those institutions which produce and facilitate this stuff? Have I done enough to stand up for the very simple notion that right is right and wrong is wrong, especially when it comes to the sanctity of life and the marriage covenant? Have I given into the desire to be entertained no matter the message being sent? Have I misplaced my priorities? Do I rely too much on the comforts of this world?
God is asking us to choose; right here, right now. I really don’t think he is going to give us too many more chances.
This point is reinforced each morning in the Liturgy of the Hours, which begins each day with Psalm 95. The verses that always get me are the following:
“Today, listen to the voice of the Lord: do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did in the wilderness, when at Meriba and Massah they challenged me and provoked me, although they had seen all my works. Forty years I endured that generation. I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray and they do not know my ways.’ So I swore in my anger, ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”
Too many of us have stopped listening to the “voice of the Lord.” Too many have grown stubborn. We challenge God and provoke him. God has been patient, but he may soon decide that we are beyond help; that our hearts go astray and we do not know his ways. He may soon decide to just let us wander around.
So, as I’ve gone through this month, I’ve been burdened by my fear that God will turn his back on us and leave us to sink in our own mire. But as this month progressed, and the Rosary decades started adding up, I became aware that this month of prayer and fasting was giving me a profound sense of hope that we can turn it around. We can create a culture that is healthy for our kids or a constructive force in our own lives.
Today’s Morning Prayer included Psalm 51 (the Miserere Mei), the one King David wrote after Nathan called him on the carpet for his affair with Bathsheba and his complicity in having, Uriah, her husband killed. It’s a powerful plea for forgiveness. When I prayed it this morning, I found myself substituting the second person for the first person (”we” instead of “I” and “us” instead of “me”). I found myself praying for our nation, for our people.
As this month of October comes to a close and we turn our attention to the month of November, the month of saints, all souls, and thanksgiving; it is a good time for us to think about whether we are preparing ourselves for life eternal and whether we are helping our fellow travelers to do the same. The state of our culture is a vital measure in determining the adequacy of our preparations.
I’m betting we can get this thing turned around. If we turn back to God; if we listen to his voice.
