We Are Not in This Together

The other day I was stuck in traffic in downtown LA. For a solid 5 minutes, I was forced to stare at a massive sign that cheerfully (manically?) claimed, “We’re all in this together!”

I had to choke back hot, bubbling, angry, tears until traffic eased up and I escaped.

I have never—ever—in my life, witnessed a American culture that is less “together.” Politically, socially, spiritually, you name it. We have chosen sides and the chasm between is deep.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’ve gotten too political, or I haven’t prayed enough, or I’ve been uncharitable in my words and mind and heart. (Okay fine it’s def partly me.)

Or maybe it’s us. Maybe we’ve decided that it’s okay to condemn people based on what’s on (or not on) their faces, or by what they do (or don’t) post on social media.

Or maybe it’s them. Political powers and a media who perhaps aren’t a part of a grand conspiracy but who undoubtedly won’t let a good disaster go to waste and who would love for us to do their dirty work by taking sides and fighting amongst ourselves.

Or maybe it’s *them.* Spiritual warfare that we can’t see but can tangibly sense as family and friends who we used to love and who used to love us fall away and a frenzy of violence sweeps through our streets, but infinitely more dangerously, sweeps through our hearts. (Yes, I’m talking about angels and demons and I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable but really, it probably should.)

I don’t know, won’t even pretend to know about “them.” There is too much unseen and all of it can be entrusted to the Lord anyway.

But I know about me. And I know about us. And I know that the answer to the unrest and division will not come after an election, no matter the outcome, if it doesn’t first come in our own hearts, and then in our homes.

If we don’t love God more, love our families more, love our neighbors more, it doesn’t matter who wins in November. We will all have lost the greatest collective spiritual opportunity of our time. The opportunity to resist evil, reject Satan and all his empty promises, and the opportunity to die to our own desires, and instead to embrace God and His beloved children

Let’s love God, above all else and at the peril of losing everything else, even our reputations. Love Him in prayer and sacrifice and sacraments and when we speak to our kids and when we post online and when we wake up and when we go to sleep and every moment in between.

Let’s love each other. Not in a sickly sweet billboard-we’re-all-in-this-together way but in an I-love-you-no-matter-what way.

Let’s love each other, in a deep and profound way that demands sacrifice of the self, even our own conclusions about who the “other” might be.

Let’s love each other, not because *we* merit it but because God, who is all good and deserving of all our love *does.*

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us. Saint Joseph, Guardian of the Redeemer and Terror of Demons, pray for us. St Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.