One God

by David Lins  |  10/22/2023  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

In this week’s Gospel, the Lord reminds us there is one God.

Why would he need to do this? Well, there were “gods” all over the place. In fact, the coin Jesus is shown claimed the emperor was the son of god.

Emperors and kings were regularly considered divine. This was often a result of their success in military conflicts, territorial expansion, or it was the result of self-declaration (often accompanied by fear of death if contradicted).

But the Lord IS God, not A god among many.

You might be thinking, “What does this have to do with me?” Let’s break protocol and talk about politics for a second…

You probably have political leanings. You should have political leanings. It means you are making an effort to be a good citizen. We all should strive to understand what various politicians plan on doing if elected (or reelected).

But what I’ve noticed is the tendency to excuse everything if “our person” wins the election and excuse nothing if the “other one” is elected.

We shrug off bad quotes, bad tweets, personal indiscretions, and even the occasional bad policies. We become experts at explaining away anything that is—shall we call it suboptimal?

But God forbid someone on the “other side” fumbles during a speech or makes an honest mistake. There is nothing that is off-limits for our ridicule, vitriol, and laughter.

I’m not saying bad (or even destructive) policy decisions shouldn’t be called out. They absolutely should.

I’m merely suggesting that no politician is divine, and therefor perfect. They all mess up and we don’t need to pretend that they don’t. (Jesus and his mom have that role filled.)

But I’m also suggesting that we are first and foremost Catholic, and we represent the Faith in all that we do. And we can do better than mocking someone else’s misfortune.

Last I checked, Catholics are called to love everyone—so why don’t we try praying for conversions of all politicians instead?