Faith on the Quad Change

Nov 11, 2008

The election is over, our country has spoken and over half of Americans cast their vote for the winning candidate: Barack Obama. Speculators say this was a protest vote, others an uninformed one and many claim it’s the media’s biggest victory. There may be truth to all of these, but speculation is done in vain when the results are tallied and a winner is announced.

Instead, some have turned to despairing remarks and anger. Late in the night of the election, facebook profiles were soaked with disappointment and hopelessness. I found it difficult to sleep knowing that my friends were writing about the impending doom that would be brought about due to a new and radically different president. However, what these commenters were failing to recognize was that the president does not elect himself, he is elected by the people.

This was a monumental election because it represented powerful, positive change as well as increased choice to those who supported these ideals, such as our classmates and peers. A president is not going to change our culture, it has already undergone change. But he now has the power to affirm a false morality by allowing violent practices and widening their impact, namely through abortion. Therefore, we are called to bring about change more than ever. We are not meant to change the name of the president, but we are to be instruments in bringing change to the minds and hearts of those around us. We must begin acting upon what is and not upon what we wish it was.

I do believe this election was about change. The pro-life movement must certainly undergo change in this new political environment. We are being called out of complacency. College students, wherever we may be, must emerge from our comfortable, communal bunkers and engage in this war of virtue and life against death and vain comfort. It is indeed comfort which we must shed in these moments. Our classmates are in the forefront of this battle, often fighting on the wrong side because we have failed in spreading the knowledge we have been given about the importance of virtue, respect and life in our search for happiness and love.

How do we leave our fortresses? What is meant by entering into this uncomfortable warfare? As college students, we are in a constant social environment, surrounded with roommates, classmates and teachers who have many different understandings of how to attain happiness. We have incredible opportunities to learn from these viewpoints and to engage in dialogue about important issues affecting our world today. However, it is neither appropriate nor loving to only view our peers as objects of evangelization. Instead, it is through enjoyable time spent together that our loudest words may be spoken through our example of living confident, joyful and virtuous lives.

This is not to say our voices should never be deliberately used. Pope John Paul II understood the battle we are now facing and reminded us time and time again to “Be not Afraid.” We must not be afraid to defend truth. When a falsity in thinking or philosophizing is apparent in the minds of our peers, we must acknowledge it out of love for our brothers and sisters and love for the culture comprised of these ideas.

Amidst this battle, while we acknowledge the active role we must take as young students, we must also realize who is in control. God is still the one and only God and we must place our trust in Him. This is a battle that will ultimately be won on our knees through prayer.  It is in that position where we will receive the strategy and strength to bring light to this cloud-covered culture.

It is the words of a humble literary hero, J. R. R. Tolkein which can offer us some final compassionate counsel.

"I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.... That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."