Aliens in America: Day 40
Author: Andrew Comiskey
November 22, 2024
Fire and Flood
‘As aliens, live in reverent fear’ (1 Pet. 1:17).
During this fast, I have experienced an acute pain in my
chest, as if pierced. The pain persists but eases through prayer to God for
country. It’s not unlike experiences of personal sin when I open myself to mercy.
Only this isn’t my sin but rather a dread for what awaits us as a nation. I
pray for every alien to be engulfed in His unfailing love.
I have no prophecy for you. To quote Ratzinger, ‘Man
is an abyss; what will rise out of these depths, no one can see in advance.’ Fair
enough.
The dread persists as we’ve prayed for the newly
forming Trump administration and a gracious passing for Biden’s. Each pang
provokes a cry for mercy. I pray that this interplay of godly fear and compassion
will rouse the Church in this hour to reveal Jesus as never before.
‘Don’t be astonished that fidelity to the Gospel
incurs suffering’ (1 Pet. 4:12). We aliens are subject to a ‘fiery ordeal’ (from
Greek, pyro), flames that refine us as we resist worldly seductions within and
grave injustices without.
We bear a kind of suffering for the world. Let’s harness
distress into prayer. We must cry out for immigrants in America who may face
cruel and unusual deportations in January: restraint, Jesus! And courageous
advocacy from the faith communities that surround them.
Pray, too, for clarity, order, and restraint amid
sexual injustices skewering the president’s new cabinet. While Trump’s
‘traditional’ morality (and alliance with conservative Christians) may rightly
curb LGBTQ+ excesses, his key leaders are normalizing predatory and abusive
expressions of sexual power. Talk about the blind prosecuting the blind.
Does the new administration not get the link between
masculine cruelty and the rise of rainbow culture? Our refusal to face the
impact of misogyny, beginning with men abusing children, is why God gave His
devil authority over the sexual mess we are in.
Trump and Musk and Gaetz and…cannot commandeer their way
out of ‘woke’ culture if they won’t own their compromises that empowered it.
Turning out loud from grave ‘normal’ sins against
chastity gives us back our authority. That must begin with the Church. How
broken are we about our sexual sins? How evident is our repentance unto the
only One who can cleanse and heal us?
May the sword in our hearts release a wellspring of
mercy, ‘for it is time for judgment to begin with the house of God’ (1 Pet. 4:17).
That is Peter’s crowning statement in his letter. ‘Judgment’ sums up how Peter
understands the fire surrounding aliens. He urges us to endure our own fiery ordeals
first, as to be free to reflect Jesus as Church to an utterly confused world.
Flames today prepare us for greater works tomorrow; these
trials purge us from the dross that dulls us and could cast us into an eternal blaze
(Mal. 3:1-4). If we who love Him won’t go through the flames, ‘where will that
put the godless who refuse the fire’ (1 Pet. 4:18)?
I apply this to the many Christians who now surround
Trump. Will they face the fire of countering one who incinerates opposition? Pray
that the faithful will not become godless by exchanging conscience for
political favor.
May ‘fiery ordeals’ make us a merciful people who release
a flood for others. We can lay down cartoonish bravado (now the rage in DC) and
get low. May Jesus raise the water levels in the Church by raising up a humble,
washed people made generous by mercy. Only Jesus can set captives free. That
applies to prisoners of DC or of any system that relies more on human strength
than the power of God.
‘The future of the Church can and will issue from
those whose roots are deep and who live from the pure fullness of their faith…She
will become small and have to start afresh. She will not presume upon a
political mandate, flirting a little with the left as with the right. It will
make Her poor and cause Her to become the Church of the meek…But when this
trial of this sifting is past, a greater power will flow from a more
spiritualized, simplified Church.’ Joseph Ratzinger
‘Thank You, Jesus, for judgment, for being pierced by
a host of grievances. We submit to the flames that refine and strengthen. Teach
us to bear under the pain of dread while we immerse ourselves in Your healing
flood. We need mercy to give mercy. May the fire give rise to a flood! Slow us
down to welcome Your saving love afresh and so approach pressures, unrest, and
convictions with Divine Mercy. May ‘Your Spirit rest upon us who suffer these
outrages; may we rejoice amid sorrow and dare to hope for something glorious to
emerge’
(1 Pet. 4:13,14).
‘Jesus, You are the King, and we
are first citizens of Your Kingdom. Would you free us for You in this election
season, not to hide but to shine? You’ve always asked nothing less from Your
elect whom You have made ‘strangers in a strange land’ (Ex. 2:22). Here we are,
a people who don’t know what to do but who look and listen to our King.
“Father of all holiness,
guide our hearts to You.
Keep in the light of Your Truth
all those You have freed from the darkness of unbelief.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son.”’
Amen
Join Andrew on Desert
Streaming each week as he dives deeper into his blog. Watch here or listen on
Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
BACK