It would be easy to sit here and blame people for the events of last week (namely, the re-election of President Obama).
Phase two of the easy option is to pull a “Lady Macbeth” and wash your hands of all of this. You didn’t vote for Obama after all, why should the blood be on your hands? “This isn’t my fault,” you say, “my conscience is clear, let me sit back and watch the chaos unfold.” The blood may not be on your hands, but that doesn’t mean you can simply wash your hands of this and be done. This is not time to sit back and watch. Dare I say that you can’t be like Lady Macbeth or Pontius Pilate and simply wash your hands and be done? Yes, I dare say it. This is the time to stop playing the blame game, grow up, take responsibility and fight for what you believe in.
Who you voted for makes no difference now. (Though I would say that depending on who you voted for, you may want to go to Confession, but that’s between you and Him.) What will make all the difference in the world is whether or not you do something with the situation that lies before us. Today, I’ll leave you with words from some amazing people who have been inspiring me lately. Our world is bigger than the blame game. Jesus didn’t hang on the cross and blame Judas or Pontius Pilate or anyone else. He accepted His fate and surrendered to GOD. He invites us to do the same.
“Here’s the moral of the story: Catholic witness has a cost. When we’re willing to pay it, we prove who we are as disciples. When we’re not, life’s a lot more comfortable. But that was never the point of the Gospel.” – Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M., Cap.
“We may never be faced with the big decision for or against Christ, but we are faced fifty times a day with the little decisions for or against Him.” – Dr. Kevin Hughes
“Words that do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.” – Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
“All the evils of the world are due to lukewarm Catholics.” – Pope St. Pius V
“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” – Francis Cardinal George
“There are times when the burden of need and our own limitations might tempt us to become discouraged. But precisely then we are helped by the knowledge that, in the end, we are only instruments in the Lord’s hands; and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone are personally responsible for building a better world. In all humility we will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord.” – Pope Benedict XVI
Be His instrument. The blame game is easy, standing up is hard. What are you living for? Who are you living for?
