As I sit watching the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean, I am reminded of the boundless awesomeness of God and how petty we can choose to be, and have chosen to be this year. At noon, Donald J. Trump will assume the office of president of the United States. How will we respond?
Today's first reading opens:
Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
It is a reminder that God's salvation is a available to every human being, all those who approach God through him. Not those just who think like me.
The name Obama, or Clinton, or Trump: Over the last months I have sadly witnessed people I think of as Christians respond with, at best, a disdainful grunt to each of these names depending on their political point of view. How can we call ourselves Christians if we hold any human being in disdain? Even about those who crucified him Jesus said," Father forgive them."
The only way we can be disdainful and dismissive of a person is to dehumanize, the way troops are trained to dehumanize the enemy in war. In order to kill them they cannot think of them as people like themselves.
We who call ourselves Christians must think of every human being as a person like ourselves. We must not only think of them but love them, as God loves them. We are not allowed to say of a person "I can't stand that man/woman).
Would I have ever thought that Donald Trump would be president? No. But today he will be. And Hillary Clinton is a grandmother who dotes on her grandchildren like any other grandmother. They are both our brother and sister. Can we all just stop, take a deep breath, and behave like people of faith.
