My Dear Doubters of Great Faith,
We are winding down the final days, hours, and minutes of this election cycle. Whatever your particular political persuasion, I hope and pray that you have either voted or made your plans as to how you will accomplish this act which is both a right and a privilege, as well as a duty. Your voice, every voice, ALL voices are important, and should and must be heard.
In these tumultuous times in which we find ourselves, having our voices heard seems practically sacramental. I felt that way when I cast my vote and they handed me my “I voted” sticker. It was like getting a communion host. It somehow represented my being heard above the cacophony, the proverbial voice in the wilderness crying that finally got recognized!
I think there’s something to this notion of lament, this deep groaning, that we need to pay some attention to. Our society, our nation, and our world, has confronted, just in the last nine months, a great deal of anguish. At this writing, over 227,000 of our fellow Americans are no longer with us because of a lethal virus which has cast the country and many individuals into financial peril. We overlook deep divisions of race and class, wounds that have been in progress over 450 years. And it all has manifested in echo chambers of our political system that exempt us from hearing and feeling the pain and struggle of others, surrounding ourselves resoundingly in our own pain.
We are not hearing the other. We are not feeling heard.
We need legitimate methods of lament that allow us to gaze into these wounds and to cry out to God as David did in the Psalms, from our points of deep and utter distress, and know that God hears us. Because authentic lament, the kind of lament that David expresses, leads to hope. When we feel heard, we feel hope. When we feel heard, we find the strength to go on another day.
I can assure you that no matter how this election cycle resolves, this election will not heal the divisions that threaten the fabric of our society. No one party can resolve all the pain and suffering that has taken place in the past, much less solve all the issues and challenges that face us in the days and years ahead. Those are unrealistic expectations of any one party or any individual.
However, healing can begin by listening, not only to each other (the ones like us), but across the divide. Groaning our own anguishes and losses, and listening to the groaning of others, in great chorus to the God who loves us ALL, that is where true healing can begin. We have got to be willing to do this very most difficult work.
Lament can be the beginning of healing.
Listen!
Yours in Quiet,
Fr. Christopher+
