"My God! What Have We Done?"
As a markedly imperfect Catholic Christian, I read a devotional every day that contains – among other things – the daily Mass readings. While I have no intention of making this space into one of Catholic or Christian evangelism, neither will I shy away from it. On occasion, it’ll directly inform what I write. And I only hope that my own perceptions of Christ’s truth will generally inform the opinions I have and the things that I say.
As it happens, today’s Gospel reading struck me in a particularly forceful way.
(Jesus says) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
While I’m in no way an exemplary believer, I can say that our nation is teeming with people who call themselves “Christians” but who seem very far away from the teachings of Christ.
Indeed, a great many of them show hatred toward immigrants, minorities and those they brand as “other” (and supreme hypocrisy, as one of God’s key messages in the Old Testament and New is to welcome the stranger and the alien among us.) Not only that, except for Native Americans, every one of us is the descendant of immigrants. Racist and “nativist” whites (which is a wrong term, anyway; nativists are whites who think they’re entitled by God to dominate America but whites aren’t “native” to this land) are in abject rebellion against God’s Word. Nothing about the Gospel suggests it’s okay to climb the metaphoric ladder to American citizenship and then pull it up and out of the grasp of other immigrants who follow.
And Christian nationalism, which a frightening number of these people adhere to and promote, is heresy as far as I’m concerned. These people seek to gain power through a compulsive Christianity. Central to Christ’s entire message is the opposite of domination through compulsion. Rather, it’s salvation through surrender; through mercy, both given and received. In fact, God’s mercy is necessarily a two-way street. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7) The merciless need not apply.
It’s unspeakably terrifying to contemplate what will become of our country when Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20th. Although he’s quite obviously not a Christian himself, he’s largely riding the power of hatred, racism and Christian nationalism straight to the White House. For large numbers of the millions who voted for him, 2025 will mark perhaps the most desperate case of buyer’s remorse in history.
Get back to me when you see news reports of an American Gestapo invading the homes of immigrants and forcibly taking them (and often, their children) into custody for detention in concentration camps. And because this operation promises to be so massive and sweeping, you can bet that some of those victims will be American citizens. I think it’s safe to say that careful and discerning aren’t adjectives that are likely to apply to the work of Trump’s henchman. Brown skin is certain to be a more determinative factor.
This isn’t coming from my fevered and paranoid imagination. Trump promised this. Millions of people had months to hear the arguments and consider their options and they voted for this. On January 20th, they’ll get what they asked for. Millions will revel in it. Millions more will feel a sickening pit in their stomachs and think, “My God! What have we done?”