Story by Joe Pisani
Lent is upon us and that means it’s a time for serious prayer and fasting. The older I get, the more I’m convinced prayer and fasting is the only hope for America. Not politics.
But we life in a strange age, when secular society looks down on such spiritual practices, and in recent years, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend among political leaders: Whenever there’s a crisis that gains national attention, they belittle people who use terms like “You’re in our thoughts and prayers.”
You’ll find that attitude everywhere. A few years ago, after a mass shooting, there was an outrageous headline on the front page of a New York City tabloid that proclaimed, “God isn’t fixing this.” The story was an outright attack on people who prayed in response to shootings.
More recently, the presidential press secretary made a point of saying, “thoughts and prayers” won’t end violence. And later, she condemned terrorist violence in Turkey and said, “Our thoughts are with those who were injured,” conspicuously avoiding a mention of prayer.
While I’m not sure how efficacious “thoughts” are, I’m convinced prayer does immeasurable good that we know of … and infinitely more that we won’t learn about until the next life, when we’ll see firsthand the countless benefits that Jesus brought out about by our simple efforts.
Attacks on people who believe in the power of prayer is nothing more than demagoguery by secularists and antitheists who think the path to a better world is through politics. (Although I’d bet that prayer does immeasurably more to make the world a better place.)
Politicians don’t like that word “prayer” because it implies someone is more powerful than they are, and that would be Christ the King.
The internet has hundreds of memes that denigrate “thoughts and prayers,” some of them vulgar, most of them just plain stupid, and all of them designed to make you believe prayer is ineffective and that elected officials have the answer.
So what’s to be done about people who deride prayer? Only one thing. Pray for them. As St. Teresa of Calcutta observed: “Souls without prayer are like people whose limbs are paralyzed; they possess but can’t control them.”
Does prayer work? If you believe it works, as I do, then we have to do a lot more praying.
During the 40 Days for Life Lenten campaign, you will probably see people with signs that say, “Pray for an end to abortion.” If the opportunity presents itself, ask them if they think prayer works, and they’ll point to what they’ve achieved through prayer and fasting.
A study by Pew Research Center about the religious landscape in America found that more than half of adults pray every day while less than a quarter seldom or never pray. And those who pray don’t necessarily have a religious affiliation, the study discovered. Twenty percent of the religiously unaffiliated pray every day while 18 percent pray weekly or monthly.
Despite what the media would have you believe, people who pray belong to both parties: 42 percent of them are Republicans and 40 percent are Democrats. That’s particularly good news because if politics divides us, prayer unites us.
Today many Catholics place their political views before their faith, or they try to contort their faith so that it corresponds to their political views. A lot of our elected leaders are notorious for doing that.
It took me a long time to learn not to place my faith in politics and that I needed to place it in the person who is really in charge — Christ the King. Jesus has always been in charge and always will be.
So if you think this country is spiraling out of control, the true solution for Christians is prayer. Pray for America every day because your prayers will be a lasting force for good. All the great leaders in our country’s history recognized that, from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King Jr. They put God first in everything, and they weren’t motivated by blind ambition and the pursuit of power.
And during these troubled times, always remember what St. Pope John Paul II once said: “Prayer joined to sacrifice constitutes the most powerful force in human history.” Read that quote again, just to make sure it sinks in … and this Lent use prayer and fasting and sacrifice to help bring about some monumental changes.