Whatever the outcome of the election, our call to discipleship remains the same
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
What’s the most important thing on your calendar this coming week?
For many people, and certainly for the secular media, the national election seems like the most important thing this week.
But let me propose that for Catholics, Mass on Sunday, Nov. 3, and Sunday, Nov. 10, are more important than the election on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Am I saying the election isn’t important? No, I’m not saying that at all! I’m only saying that our fidelity to the Lord’s command (to honor the sabbath and keep it holy) and to the first precept of the Church (to attend Mass on Sunday and Holy Days) has greater importance.
This lesson — that fidelity to the Lord is the most important thing — is highlighted in the Book of Maccabees and in the Book of the Prophet Daniel, which the Church gives us in the Office of Readings in these early weeks of November.
But I propose that the feast we celebrate on Nov. 9 — the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, the pope’s cathedral and therefore a symbol of Catholic unity — also offers us a lesson more important than Nov. 5.
The first reading for the feast comes from Ezekiel 47: the vision of a river flowing out of the temple in heaven. The river waters the fruit trees that grow on its banks: “Every month they shall bear fresh fruit … Their fruit shall serve for food and their leaves for medicine.”
That vision is repeated in Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible. Two things become clear at that point: The river represents Christ, whose grace flows into the world as living water; and the trees represent the followers of Christ, who are meant to give spiritual food and healing to the world.
That’s why the most important thing this week is Mass, where we receive Christ Himself and allow Him to be the river of living water flowing into us. Whatever the outcome of the election, our task will remain the same: to be trees of life, watered by Christ, offering our lives as fruit and medicine to the world.
The question for us is: What do we have to give up to make that possible and deeper?
Providentially, on Wednesday of this week — the day after the election — we’ll hear from Jesus about the cost of discipleship: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). We can’t become trees of life without sacrifice.
We knew that when we watched the Olympics this past summer: There was no victory without sacrifice! We know that same lesson from the faith: There is no victory without the cross. We tend to forget that in everyday life. We need to remember it!
So, let’s think carefully about this question: What’s the most important thing on your calendar this week?
