Very Reverend Michael Demkovich, O.P.: “Leaders After My Own Heart

“Leaders

After My Own

Heart”

Most of us are aware how many people find today’s moment in history as lamentable and disheartening. Only a naïve person would think that society is not at a critical crossroad. I hear from people who are angry at politicians who seem greedy and power hungry. I hear from young and old who suspect that the shutdown is unnecessary and politically motivated. I am aware of those who want to radically change America and others who want to do away with all religion. I think that one can fairly say things are looking bleak and desperate, which the past shows us can be volatile. But even if it is so, this is not the first time in history that humanity had to face its own moral future.

Only those willing to learn from history

This is not the first time in history that humanity had to face its own moral future.

value the lessons of history. Instead the fool tries to rewrite a more convenient history rather than struggle to learn the hard lessons. The funny thing about history is that it cannot be erased. No matter how hard anyone tries to rub it out, the realities of the past haunt us all, generation upon generation, until we learn the hard wrought lessons. Only a person so prideful and self-absorbed would think to revise the past. As best we try, we are only able to revisit the past. But history’s long arm reaches far into the future. The truth of history cannot be bent. It alone is the infallible judge of past events. Hope, however, enables us to go forward, to live life accepting the past but committed to the future.

In the time of Jeremiah (B.C. 650-570), the people had abandoned their faith, and like our own times they had lost their way. They felt threats from outside foreign forces, they abandoned their faith in God, they sacrificed their children to idols of convenience, and their false prophets spread lies. All this mislead them. It was to such uncertain times when the prophetic voice of Jeremiah was heard. The religious voice always speaks to the depth of the human heart. It calls our rebellious self to come back to a nobler purpose, the true destiny of humanity and human history. As we face our own uncertain times we must learn the lessons of the past. Jeremiah challenged the people and he challenges us. The issue today, as we look to an election, is leadership. Now more than ever the voice of religion is being muted, the hard lessons of history are being ignored, and rebellious hearts foster and forge a less human, more violent world. Jeremiah gives us hope. God will raise up leaders after His own heart who will guide us wisely and prudently (Jeremiah 3:15). The idolatry of our age is not made of stone and wood but of greed and a lust for power that plagues us all. So when it comes to casting our vote, where do our hearts lie? This is the moral choice of a free and democratic society. The politics that Israel and Judah faced in the time of Jeremiah hasn’t changed that much since the seventh century B.C. Today we face the question of our moral worth and ultimate purpose. Wisdom and prudence remain the great guarantors of history. But why are they so critical?

Both wisdom and prudence, it seems to me, are the critical virtues of a representative constitutional democracy. Each American voter has a moral responsibility to wisely and prudently discern their choice in casting their ballot. As a republic our government is quite literally “a matter of the people” (res publica). If we hope to do so wisely, it requires our critical understanding of the good that needs to be done and our prudently being attentive to all the aspects of the really real. A wise person seeks after the good and a prudent person knows the truth of things. Goodness and

By Very Reverend Michael Demkovich, OP, Episcopal Vicar for Doctrine & Life

truth, loving and knowing, remain the premier guide for every Christian, and I pray every citizen. This becomes particularly challenging when pervasive mistrust undermines our public discourse. We must dig deeply to unearth what “is” truly is. As we prepare to vote we must ask the challenging question Jeremiah poses, “Who are the leaders after the heart of God?” Democracy’s legacy for the future is a wise and prudent electorate. Our vote is a vow (votum) and pledge for the future common good that calls us to judge beyond our private personal goods. If we truly want leaders after the heart of God, we need to vote wisely and prudently, for in the end our free choice is the only moral worth we have, and God, not history, will be our judge.