The Lord is My Light and My Salvation

By Bishop Joseph G. Hanefeldt

  When I was in elementary school, I remember numerous conversations among the adults in my life that began with the words: “What is the world coming to?” I celebrated my 10th birthday in 1968 — a tumultuous time in the world. The United States had entered into the Vietnam War. The civil rights movement ignited riots all across America and Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. The hippie phenomenon rejected the values and established institutions of the culture turning to alternative lifestyles, drugs and sexual promiscuity. Those were troubling times. 
   Fast forward to 2024 and many people are asking the same question, again: “What is the world coming to?” We have wars raging in Ukraine and Israel and the threat of China invading Taiwan with other nations also threatening to “exercise military options.” Dictators are controlling many places, including Venezuela and Nicaragua in this hemisphere. This year is a presidential election and candidates are being labeled in terms of good or evil. This polarity in politics is skewing just about every aspect of our lives. Advances in technology and the brave new world of artificial intelligence only deepen our already anxious lives. 
   Likewise, there is great instability within the Church as Catholics question every Church teaching based on their opinion about the officials who authored them. The U.S. Bishops have launched a nationwide Eucharistic Revival even as participation in the Church, slipping long before the COVID-19 pandemic, has come to an all-time low. At the same time, young people are looking to the Church for deeper meaning and understanding. Organizations like FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) are drawing young people into the Church and back to the Church by discipling them with the Gospel. I am greatly encouraged by the faith, hope and charitable hearts of so many young people today. 
   So, what is the world coming to? I believe it is coming to a decisive moment. In baptism, we were given the gift of faith. To some greater or lesser degree, we who are reading these lines have all been formed in faith. But fewer and fewer people are being baptized and raised with any faith in God. The result is that many people, including ourselves, are not looking to God for meaning, guidance or salvation. We have bought into the idea that political leaders are the ones who will save us. We think the answers to our happiness and security in this world are found in the political realm. More and more, God is no longer in the equation. 
   To be sure, we need good political leaders to manage public policy for the common good and for the building up of our society. We need men and women of solid character and faith to raise the bar of sound ethics in all levels of government.  But ultimately, politics will not save us! Only faith and adherence to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ can keep us grounded in Divine Revelation. In this way, we remember who our true Savior is and will more likely prioritize our lives around his teaching. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” (Mt 6: 33) Politics has its place, but in the end it is only faith in our Lord that will save us. Perhaps for every political blog post we read, we should read three times as many chapters of the Gospel! 
   The decisive moment for each of us is the decision to accept the saving love of Jesus Christ for us personally, and then make an intentional response to his great love and mercy. That response is not a “once and done” kind of act. It must be the daily, ongoing decision to courageously “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” While most of us believe Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us, we have yet to actually “go after it” in a way that says, “Lord, save me!” When we welcome his saving love for us right where we need it the most, where there is shame around the truth of our sins, that’s how we go after it! And when we experience the love and mercy of God in the very places in our lives where we feel we leas t deserve it, life will look differently going forward. 

  Psalm 27 begins with the words, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom should I be afraid?” (Ps 27:1-2) I might recommend that we pray those two verses daily — just to keep a proper perspective on life. There is much that can discourage us. There are countless blogs and pundits whose opinions can get us all riled up and shift our perspective from the wisdom of Jesus to worldly perspectives. Frequently praying, “The Lord is my light and my salvation,” helps keep panic and anxiety at bay as we entrust more to the power of prayer and divine intervention and less to the political maneuvering of “influencers.” 
   What is the world coming to? As we profess in the Nicene Creed, “We believe that he [Jesus] will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” Yes, a decisive moment is coming, for which we ought to be more eager than for anything else this world has to offer. And the more prepared and eager we are for the Lord’s coming, the more the world will be reminded that the best is yet to come — not in this world, but in the kingdom that will have no end!