Let us ‘see each other anew’
CHARLOTTE — Bishop Michael Martin offered the following comments Wednesday following Tuesday’s elections:
It has been said: “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
The conclusion of this election cycle last night gives us the opportunity to place the hammers aside for a moment and to see each other anew, to see each other as something more.
More than losers or winners, Democrats or Republicans or Independents, conservatives or liberals or moderates. When these are the only ways to see the people with whom we share this planet, we may miss the opportunity to more fully appreciate the person behind the nail.
That person has many of the same concerns and joys as we do, even if we disagree on some of the most fundamental issues of our lives. The failure to value all people as children of the same God is an afront to the dignity of the human person that Jesus came to show us.
That is our challenge this morning. Are we willing to see each other anew, beyond what the hammer may suggest?
Our political system certainly has its flaws, and yet it continues to be a place to serve the common good. Let that be the plow that we all place our hand to this morning.
May we see in one another not simply a political opponent, but rather a person with whom I am called to live in communion, seeking first to understand them than to be understood by them. May the olive branch be the only wood we hold onto today, bearing the refreshing news that the destruction of the storm of an election is over, and that there is common ground upon which all of us can walk this earth in peace. May God continue to send us the Holy Spirit to unite us as one in Him!
+ Most Rev. Bishop Michael T. Martin, OFM Conv.