The Cultural Trumps the Economic; The Spiritual Trumps the Cultural

The recent presidential election was characterized by a crass materialism on both sides: dread of tax increases versus resentment of the "one percent." But we learned from Blessed John Paul II that the cultural trumps the economic, the political, and even the military. He lived to triumph, joyously, over the legacies of Hiler and Stalin. And so, in the present context, tax rates and regulation and the expansion or shrinking of government are far less important than the moral and cultural issues: the heritage we pass on to our children about the value of innocent life, sexuality, gender and family. However, even more primal and significant than the culture war is the spiritual combat in which we are engaged every day. The Church is pretty much losing the culture war on gay marriage and contraception, but that is not what matters most to us who follow Jesus. More important by far are the spiritual issues: do I love my enemies, political and cultural? am I humble and contrite about my own limitations and sins? am I gracious, merciful, and generous to those with whom I disagree? If we get the spiritual realities right, we enter the Kingdom of Heaven, here and now, and God's grace will flow inexoribly, efficaciously, infallibly into our families, communities, and economies.