Spirituality for Today – March 2008 – Volume 12, Issue 8

Editorial

By Rev. Mark Connolly

Photo of a rusty nail hammered part way into a wooden crossAll of us for the last several months have been hearing the presidential contenders telling us what will happen when they become elected president. They talk about universal health care, they remind us that no child will be left behind, they tell us that our country will academically produce children superior to most countries. And they tell you in effect that life is going to be so much better if they are elected.

None of us want to be cynical, none of us want to be pessimistic about their promises, but so often we have gone through so many campaigns, had tremendous promises made and things stayed about the same when the parties who were talking were elected. In the life of each one of us, we have to vote for the sake of our country. We have to get the best people in office for the sake of our country. But we also have to keep in mind that God has given to each person reading this editorial talents and you are expected to make a contribution to this country with the talents that God has given you. We as Catholics oftentimes forget we have to render to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and render to God the things that belong to God. Our country, our Church, need your help. That basically means using every one of your talents to help your country grow and help your Church grow.

There are individuals all throughout our country who have extraordinary talents. We have heard over and over of the woman, Candy Lightner, who on her own started a campaign that became known as mothers against drunk driving. We also have the story of a wonderful woman by the name of Rosa Parks who would not go to the back of a bus and eventually started the civil rights movement. You can go back into history and you will find the names of individuals from all over our country, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, none of them had anything to do with government, but they were individuals with a mission, a mission to improve the life of the people with whom they lived and worked.

Each one of us always must keep in mind God put us on this earth to help make our country better and to help make our Church better. Holy Week has one lesson for all of us. Yes, there is a Good Friday in each one of our lives, but there is also an Easter Sunday. The lesson for us is simple. Each one of us will go through Good Friday. Christ had to go through one so do we. Christ's victory on Good Friday found mankind being redeemed from all its sins that led to the glorious Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. Each one of us has a Good Friday in our lives. It is a test. It is a challenge. It is God's way of saying my Son did something unusual on Good Friday that resulted in victory on Easter Sunday. God is saying to us, your Good Friday, used properly, can bring to the world a whole new kind of peace, not only for others but for yourself.