Okay, I admit it. I'm probably one of the very few who did not, and will
not, read the Starr report on President Clinton's affair with Monica
Lewinsky and its subsequent charges of illegalities that might very well
result in impeachment or resignation of said President from office.
Having confessed this, that does not mean that I have not prayed for those
involved in such a sordid affair, that I have not sought God's help in
understanding what He, the Almighty, wishes of us, His children, in light
of these events and the ramifications to life in the American society
(note: I did not say the political arena where most of this has been and
will be played out).
God is our Father. Every person's father, regardless of race, religion,
politics, or the like. The sublime dignity of being a child of God is one
we need to take seriously, for it is an integral part of our Symphony of
Suffering while we sojourn on earth.
I was struck with last Sunday's Gospel about the prodigal son. In my
younger years, I struggled with this passage, as perhaps most of us did.
As I've grown older, God has been merciful to enlighten me with a bit of
understanding (and being a parent has helped, too!).
To some degree we are all prodigal sons while we are struggling to return
to our Father in Heaven, via the way Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of
God, showed to us during His earthly life. We squander our Father's riches
(His graces and His mercies), and we are stubborn and obstinate in doing
His Will, rather than seeking our own will in the way of the world, the
flesh, and the devil. So, it stands to reason that if we, individually,
can pardon our own waywardness during the course of our lives, should we
not then pardon just as profusely, the waywardness of someone like Bill
Clinton, and Monica Lewinsky, and the others who covered up the deceit, the
lies, the abuse of power, etc.? It would seem, from what I have heard on
the TV news, that the poll takers are at it again, and the consensus is
that the majority of Americans would just as soon the man resigned, so that
the American People wouldn't have to go through the rigors of an
impeachment proceeding, or a censure of the president by Congress. It's
called saving face, or a bunch of other idiomatic phrases that come to
mind. It's called salving our conscience. If we are going to be able to
look God in the face and tell Him why we did certain things in our live,
then we find it much easier to just have Clinton fade from the scene,
taking with him the scarring memories of his own debacles.
Nonetheless, the truth of the situation is far greater than we wish to
realize, and if we are able to realize the truth of the Clinton scandal,
then we are in better shape of honing our conscience individually to accept
the truth of our own failings, and setting them straight while we have time.
It's not enough to seek impeachment or censure. It's not enough to simply
wish the man and his crimes would retire from office, so we could get on
with the business of keeping the American economy and presence as a world
power strong. It's not enough to say, "It's private", and we have no part
of it with Bill Clinton. On the contrary, it's not private, but public, as
he is an elected official who owes his job, and therefore his actions while
on the job, to the American people. He has lied, he has cheated, he has
committed adultery, he has abused his office and the power of that office
to keep the American people in the dark, believing in his two-faced lies,
which are apparently swallowed whole and intact by a gullible public who
can't see any further than their bank account, the fine home they own, the
new school their kids go to, the fancy car in the driveway, the big-screen
TV, the vacations that are taken, the credit cards that revolve so nicely,
etc.
This, my dear friends, affects you and I. It affects us profoundly in two
ways: First, we are affected by the sins, for all sin has a domino effect
on the world at large. Taking this a bit further, when you and I sin, when
we remain unrepentant and do not amend our ways, then we are dragging the
world down with us. On the reverse side, when we are in harmony with God's
Will, when we are flowing with grace and mercy, then we are elevating the
world to God, to whom all the world belongs first and always. Secondly,
when someone sins (in this case, we are speaking of Bill Clinton), and we
choose to ignore the sin, choose to ignore the consequences that stop the
graces from flowing to him, to us, to the world, to his own family, we are
reprehensible for this attitude of laxness before God. Not to speak up,
not to seek the right thing for Clinton and his family, and for the country
and the world, is to play the selfish role, thinking that a change in
administration might weaken our position in the world economy, thus
rendering our pocketbook a bit short of cash over the next few years.
Pitiful, but true! We do this. We don't want to rock a boat that we
think is bringing the money into the economic realms where we believe we
live, move, and have our being. What nonsense! Clinton is not god. We
are not gods. God is God. He is our Father, and He is most certainly not
pleased by this scandal. Did not Our Lord tell us in Sacred Scripture that
"Woe to he who brings harm to the child. Better that a millstone be hung
around his neck and he be cast into the sea."? Well, Clinton's behavior is
a millstone around the collective neck of the innocence of the youth of the
world, and upon the collective moral conscience of the world as a whole.
It is nothing less, because he happens to hold one of the most powerful
offices created by man in the world. To abuse the power, the office, to
abuse the conscience of the American people, to thrust onto the forefront
of the American papers, the TV sets, and now the internet, the details of
his sordid, sad affair, is to jeopardize not only the senses of our
children, but our own senses as well. Don't delude yourself into thinking
that just because you're an adult you can handle these types of perversion
without letting it affect you. That's nonsense, too. Oh, we're supposed
to be adults but we're supposed to also be a "child" of God, and to behave
in a "childlike" manner with God at all times. Think about that, and then
ask yourself if all of this play-by-play coverage of the moral ineptness of
Bill Clinton's administration hasn't weakened your conscience a bit? Is it
not that all of us are now becoming more and more immune to this kind of
immorality, and that we brush it off as inconsequential, provided that we
didn't do it, and that we take extra steps to keep the words, the images
out of the minds of our children? Are we being responsible adults when
we do that?
I don't think so. If we were responsible adults, we would have never
elected Bill Clinton to begin with. However, having elected him, we would
have collectively thrown him out of office almost immediately when it
started to come to light that scandal was his middle name. We didn't do
that, either. No, we've glossed over one sordid mess after another, we've
bought the man's lies, and we've polarized ourselves into the left-wing and
right-wing movement. And in doing so it has become a Babel of many shouting,
screaming voices of mere rhetoric without meaning.
We are in our Symphony of Suffering, and we are not listening to the
sounds we are making, the sounds that God hears and responds to. We are
deaf to the horrible sounds of this scandal, and we are trying to drown it
out with Babel of sounds louder and more discordant as we argue the pros
and cons of impeachment versus resignation, versus censure.
Enough with the noise bombardment! Enough with the rhetoric. Truth is
truth, lies are lies, and there is no gray area, or middle ground here. We
must do the right thing, and the more swiftly we do it, then the more
swiftly do we make our symphony to God one of pleasing, melodic, Heavenly
notes that cause Him to shower us with His Mercy. To do nothing is perhaps
the most noxious of all activities, but we must not let ourselves be swept
up into doing nothing on the pretext that "Clinton did nothing impeachable!"
If you believe he did nothing impeachable, then perhaps you need to
reflect on the fact that the prodigal son returned home (to God) and
amended his ways, which was the very reason his Father celebrated his
return home. Clinton says "sorry" and only God knows if he truly is, or if
he's spouting words at us again. Let's leave that to God, and let Clinton
hear our collective voice raised in Love (Divine Love) to him as we say,
"Enough of the lies and scandal, for you are injuring yourself, your
family, and you injure us. We want you out of office, we want you to go
into private life and heal yourself, heal your family, and allow us to be
healed as well, for we placed our trust in you and you have failed us and
you have failed God. Yes, we forgive you. Nevertheless, we cannot forget
what you have done, and so we shall pray for you, and ask God to help you,
for you are his child, Bill Clinton, and He loves you so much that His Son
died for you, too. So, Bill, say good-bye and go elsewhere, but leave some
integrity intact on your way out the door of the White House, because with
God's grace, we shall elect a man to that office who possesses integrity,
and we shall thank God for such a singular grace and virtue."