Volume V, Issue 30, November 21, 2008

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- Post-Election Commentary II: The Remedy? by Mark Miravalle

It is now approximately two weeks following the election of the U.S. president. I believe that we, as Christians of the United States, must ask ourselves the following question: What is the dominant preoccupation of our minds and hearts regarding our nation, our faith, and our future at the present moment?

If our dominant preoccupation consists of pondering the potential dangers of the upcoming administration and its grave anti-life, anti-family, and anti-natural law policies, then we will probably be experiencing fear more than anything else, and may perhaps be struggling with temptations of depression and despair.

If the answer to this question is the peace and promises which come only from the Heart of Jesus through the Heart of His Mother, then we will be experiencing peace, hope, and even joy.

To some, the mere posing of this question would bring protests of naïveté, pietism, or even a "burying your head in the sand" syndrome regarding the real dangers of the new administration.

As I stated in my first post-election commentary given on November 5, the day following the election, the proposed policies of the newly elected administration (based on campaign commitments) are gravely dangerous to the dignity of person and the common good of society on several fronts: from the Freedom of Choice Act, which would not only guarantee a woman’s right to abortion, but would also designate the "discrimination" from the government funding of abortions as illegal; to the undermining of parental authority by dismissing parental notification for minors seeking abortions; to a proper protection of the traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Sadly, the list of serious offenses to personal and societal integrity contained in the projected policies of the new administration goes on and on.

But we must return to the fundamental question at hand: As Christians, what is the foundational focus of our hearts today, two weeks after the election, regarding the status and future of our country, and where should our ultimate peace and hope lie?

Jesus calls us to keep our eyes focused on Him during any storm lest we sink (cf. Mt. 14:30). Otherwise, if it is God’s beckoning, we can walk on water, regardless of the severity of the storm, be it local, national, global.

On July 13, 1917, the Mother of Jesus promised humanity, "In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph … and a period of peace will be granted to the world." The world’s peace plan has been entrusted to the intercession of Mary, mediatrix of miracles at the wedding of Cana (cf. Jn. 2:5), and mediatrix of miracles for this present moment of human history.

If we are placing more focus and attention upon the potential darkness of the new government, rather than upon the grace and promise of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, then we grant darkness an upper hand, an applause of power (human and perhaps preternatural), over the infinite light and power of the God-man and his Immaculate Mother. Such a focus would in itself constitute a victory for the serpent and his seed, and a loss for the woman and her seed (cf. Gen. 3:15).

Permit me two gentle warnings, amidst the understandable feelings of violation and sorrow by many Christians, following the election.

The first caution: As Christians, we cannot judge and we cannot hate. To be more specific, we cannot judge persons in the order of culpability, and we cannot hate persons and consider ourselves followers of Incarnate Love.

Yes, we must judge actions and policies, as items either in conformity or in violation of the truths of Christ and the natural law. But we cannot judge people’s hearts. This is reserved for Christ the Divine Judge alone. The Christian prohibition of the judgment of another’s heart must extend to all members of the upcoming administration, including of course the president-elect, and to those fellow citizens or fellow Christians who may have voted them into office. The traditional Christian maxim, "love the sinner, hate the sin," must likewise be strictly observed if we desire the same standard to be applied by Jesus to us.

The second caution: We must avoid using the new president-elect as the scapegoat for all national woes facing our country. He will be responsible for his actions, as each of us, before God the Father, who always prefers to respond in mercy unless he is obliged by our free will and its misuse to respond in justice.

But we must keep in mind that the United States, fundamentally aware of the victorious candidate’s policies, overwhelmingly chose him to guide our country. This tells us we need a national conversion, not simply the conversion of one man, from a culture of death mind-set to a culture of life heart-set.

Moreover, the problems facing our country and our world are far beyond the reach, responsibility, or remedy of one man. We are facing (particularly in the Western world) moral degeneration of person, marriage, family, and society on an unprecedented scale. We, as a world, have been hit with natural disasters which international relief organizations testify are more numerous and severe than ever before. We are threatened by terrorism, war, and rumors of war, which have effect every country in some form throughout the world.

No human person in any chair of political power could or should be seen as the single source of its evil or as the social messiah or as a remedy for a solution which can only come from above.

What is the only true remedy for the unprecedented degeneration, disaster, and war facing our country and most every country in the world at this moment?

To borrow the succinct expression of the former Cardinal Ratzinger (and present Pope Benedict XVI) from his Ratzinger Report: "Mary is the Remedy." She is the remedy for the crisis in our country and within the entire human family.

This is precisely why the inestimable graces of Jesus Christ alone can solve the ubiquitous problems of our day, and the universal Redeemer chooses to bestow his graces to the world through the intercession of his mother, who He gave to each one of us as a personal gift from the cross: "Behold, your mother" (Jn. 19:26).

At Fatima, Our Lady said of herself, "pray the Rosary every day … in order to obtain peace for the world … because only she can help you" (July 13, 1917). At the Church-approved apparitions at Akita in Japan, Our Mother confirmed, "I alone am able to save you from the calamities that approach" (Oct. 13, 1973). And in the ecclesiastically approved apparitions of the Lady of All Nations in Amsterdam, she stated, "When the dogma, the last dogma in Marian history, has been proclaimed, the Lady of All Nations will give peace, true peace to the world. The nations, however must say my prayer in union with the Church. They must know that the Lady of All Nations has come as Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate. So be it" (May 31, 1954).

It becomes clear that God has willed to bring peace, redemption, and grace to the world only through the intercession of Mary. Mary is the remedy. The sooner we acknowledge and respond to this, to heaven’s peace plan in Our Lady, the sooner we will receive the peace and societal stability we all desire. God is not going to exchange his perfect providential choice of the Immaculate Co-redemptrix as our remedy for any human or political substitute that we may recommend or prefer.

Our Lady is the remedy. Now, it’s up to us.

How do we show our acceptance, our consent, our fiat to Mary as the remedy for all that ails contemporary humanity’s body and soul?

This is the prayer revealed by Our Lady herself in her apparitions at Amsterdam specifically for the solemn papal definition of the fifth Marian dogma (approved by Bishop Joseph Punt, Bishop of Harlaam-Amsterdam, May 31, 2002):

Accept Mary as heaven’s remedy for the present national and world crisis.

Pray the Rosary each day for our situation, national and global.

Consecrate yourself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and live daily your consecration in peace and joy.

Pray daily the prayer of the Lady of all Nations for the fifth Marian dogma.

Focus on the Light and let Him disperse the present darkness through her.

Dr. Mark Miravalle
Professor of Theology and Mariology
Franciscan University of Steubenville

http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1542

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