Aliens in America: Day 40

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, some of his key leaders are normalizing abusive expressions of sexual power. I am only grateful for Gaetz removing himself as Trump’s AG candidate. Pain-provoked prayer works; Jesus have mercy on that wounded man.

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…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

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