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Francis X. Clooney, S.J.November 13, 2016

It’s rather gloomy here in Cambridge, to say the least. I am quite sure there are Trump supporters in the city, and at Harvard too, but at the Divinity School, the great majority was hoping for change; many had really wanted Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and settled for Hillary Clinton; but after that, most of these too were very much hoping for her to win and dismayed that by so narrow a margin, Donald Trump instead was the victor.

That there is distress in some (but not all parts) of Harvard will surprise few. The Divinity School has a 200 year history of low church “undenominational” Christian identity and today is increasingly diverse. Faculty, students and staff come from different traditions and none. We all know an “illegal” or two. Among us are the gay and the queer, the transgendered. There are Muslims among our faculty, staff and students, and they are our friends and colleagues. The women among us are strong and articulate, ready to lead. And so there is anger but also fear: Suppose Trump does all the things he promised to do, closing the borders, expelling immigrants, barring Muslims, reducing health care opportunities and on and on?

Most (though not all) of the Catholics I know on this end of Harvard’s campus favored Hillary Clinton, even if many had previously favored Mr. Sanders. Some, to be sure, are pro-choice, while many, even if opposed to abortion, doubt the efficacy of a total ban and in any case felt on almost every other issue that the Democratic positions were closer to those of the church and Pope Francis than positions pushed by Mr. Trump and the Republican establishment. Mr. Trump had, after all, pushed just about every button he could to outrage liberals—but also Christians and like-minded members of other traditions who care for the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed in our society. It would obviously be very hard to believe Mr. Trump, were he now to promise suddenly to start caring for the marginalized, the excluded, those subjected to racial and sexual discrimination.

So we are in a rather depressed state, and it is real and heartfelt. It would be no more fair to caricature Cambridge liberals than to caricature people in any part of the country, red or blue. Here too people care deeply about our country, worry about the future and recognize the burden of responsibility upon those wishing to live their faith in practice. At the Divinity School, we have already had several open meetings to discuss the election, its aftermath, what is likely to happen now and how we should respond. I hosted one on Thursday, where many spoke passionately of their personal deep disappointment, anger and fear; and many raised acute questions about the media, about how we educate and about the need for the school to reach across the divides in our nation. We have promised to meet again in the near future as Mr. Trump’s plans become concretized.

It is not a bad idea in this situation for those of us who are Christian to turn to the words of Jesus. Matthew Potts, a colleague of mine on the Harvard faculty, has already written a thoughtful and moving meditation on Luke 21, the Gospel passage for November 13, the 33rd Sunday of the year. This is where Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple and the civil and natural and cosmic catastrophes that accompany it.

Matt’s text begins,

Jesus has just entered Jerusalem and his disciples are marveling at the majesty of the temple, at the size of the stones and the opulence of the adornments. But Jesus isn’t having it. He warns them that all the stones will be thrown down, that division and conflict will come. It’s not a very happy passage; in fact, it’s sometimes called the little apocalypse. Without overstating the case, I think we are experiencing our own apocalyptic moment today, a moment when the shakiness of our foundations has been troublingly revealed. For years we have boasted about our cherished institutions: our free press, our stable democracy, our public education. There have been cracks in the stones holding up these institutions for some time, of course, anyone could see. But we didn’t expect them to crumble.

Near the end, he adds, “But if there is anything the Christian churches should be well poised to offer in the wake of this election, it should be our willingness to look directly at loss, to speak frankly about death and despair.” I encourage you to read the entirety of his thoughtful words.

In this situation and having preached on this Gospel Sunday morning, I wish to mark two other themes that complement Matt’s insights. First, it is helpful and healthy to put aside once again the myth of sure and sunny progress. Our nation is a very good one, even if it’s never been the “greatest nation on earth.” But there is no reason to believe in irreversible progress, as if we are on a sure and straight path to an ideal society. The 20th century, as we all know, witnessed an astonishing mix of the worst and best of human nature; the 21st shows no signs of sure and straightforward improvement. The great monuments of human pride, and even churches and temples and mosques, will crack and come crashing down, societies will experience upheaval, people will continue to suffer—even as in other ways, at the same time, the world is becoming a more peaceful, humane home to our billions.

There is no sure movement forward, as Jesus is right in reminding us: Admire the magnificence of what you have built, but do not be surprised when it crashes to the ground. Ministry is not about success. This means that the work we do—as religious leaders, teachers, scholars, ministers to those in need—needs to be grounded in a faith that is not naïve, in a hope that is not merely optimism, in a love that is long and sometimes lonely.

Sometimes we can go with the flow, but sometimes we are on our own, traveling in the other direction. If Mr. Trump were serious about the things he promised during his campaign, then we political progressives—including, I would say, many Christians and many of our brothers and sisters in other spiritual traditions too—will in the next decades have to be peaceful but stubborn resisters to a government that will now be owned almost entirely by Mr. Trump and his Republican friends. (Resistance: Each of us resists in her or his own way. Mine will surely be to continue to educate: Ignorance is at the root of many great evils, in church or school or society.)

But there is reason to hope, if our feet are on the ground. My second complement to Matt’s reading of Luke 21 is to notice that Jesus pairs his apocalyptic vision of all the terrible things about to happen to Jerusalem, the nation and his listeners too, with very clear and pointed instructions about trusting in God:

When you are hauled before hostile powers: “this will give you an opportunity to witness. So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; for I will give you a mouth and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. (13-15)

When you are mocked, hated, and suffer violence because of your value: remember that “not a hair of your head will perish. In your endurance you will gain your souls.” (18-19)

When everything comes apart, and the world itself seems at the edge of self-destruction, “stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (28)

Stand up, fear not, speak the gift that is in you. Brave and bold advice in every time of crisis, however personal or national or global it may be.

And back here on campus, Harvard Divinity School witnesses each day a variety of spiritual practices, meditation groups, shared liturgies and worship. It is, at its best, educating not just the mind, but also integrating mind and heart, ideas and practices, to help our students—these young and generous idealists—to settle in for the long haul, speaking by a wisdom gifted to us, suffering but never perishing, lifting our heads, refusing to cower. Even now, even in this, the Lord comes near.

Dorothy Day was fonding of citing William James in this regard, and I leave to them the last word:

I am done with great things and big things, great institutions and big success, and I am for those invisible, molecular moral forces that work from individual to individual, stealing in through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of pride.

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John Walton
7 years 11 months ago
I'm sorry it's gloomy in Cambridge MA, the sun is shining in Youngstown OH. For a moment, please to take off that affected dog-collar and work among the hoi polis. You could start by learning to weld, or code in C++.
Vincent Gaglione
7 years 11 months ago
Trump is not bringing back the economy that existed in the mid-West 25 years ago. Those who voted for him and believed that he would, are woefully ignorant of the effects of modern technology on manufacturing and production. Nor will he bring back union wages to any jobs that get created. His goal to get people working, using infrastructure work, will also be invested deeply in modern technology and very little in ordinary manual labor. The Republicans will not allow the prevailing union wage theory to be incorporated into the legislation! Trust me, there are plenty of welders willing to move and work for less than union wages. But the Republicans and Trump will be able to say for the next election, to further con the voters, that they brought back jobs, got the economy stimulated, and kept their campaign promises. The voters in Youngstown, OH will remain as bereft of their expectations as they are now. I do hope that I am wrong!
William Rydberg
7 years 11 months ago
Interesting, it also seems that St John 16:2 is emblematic of the double edged reference which in humility, every Christian ought to approach warily, no matter their theological/denomination/political perspective. There seems to be sparse goodwill manifested in Christian Academia from all sides these days judging by some news reports in the United States (and based upon your recap, even in England's academic circles). "They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God". One wonders what the Hindu perspective currently is on the Subject under discussion? Prayers for all concerned, in Christ, Prince of Peace
Stanley Kopacz
7 years 11 months ago
I'm anti-Trump but now you have anti-Trumpers repeating neoliberal pomposities like "automation means that the jobs aren't coming back". So you're telling them they're screwed, so shut up. Well, if they're screwed, wtf, vote for the bomb named Trump. Maybe there will be jobs to do in the post-apocalypse. There won't be self-driving trucks in the post-apocalypse. 1.5M jobs saved.
Tom Maher
7 years 10 months ago
Excellent point. Why should the nation accept as inevitable the continued long-term decline in jobs in the manufacturing and other sectors due to automation and other factors including competition from new products brought about from technological change ? In the past automation and new products created from technology created more jobs and often whole new industries around new technologies. Significant technological changes that has been around for more than two centuries has always created more new jobs than it destroyed. Why should we assume some kind of apocalypse has arrived stopping more new jobs and industries from being created? Your point that neoliberals repeat "automation means that jobs aren't coming back" is very good. This very same superstition was repeated in the 2016 election by anti-Trump Republicans such as French of the National Review and potential post-primary anti-Trump Presidential nominee irrationally added that the industrial belts of the east and mid-west somehow deserved their long-term economic decline and unemployment. Most of the political establishment Republican and Democrat believes that only through globalism will the America economy be maintained such as it is with widespread, high joblessness. The nation certainly is ready for better economic ideas than the automation apocalypse of the political establishment. Attempting to "make America great again" makes a lot of sense to try. The nation's economic policies need to be re-focused on America's job creation needs. The nation urgently needs better economic policies that create more jobs to keep up with the nation's population growth.
Beth Cioffoletti
7 years 11 months ago
I'm done. No more politics for me. No more getting behind a candidate and believing that this is the "solution". I loved Obama and the integrity that he brought to the office of the Presidency, but in the end he was trapped in that dirty, rotten system that Dorothy Day told us about. The same with Hillary. Revolution? I'm tempted to fall in with this crowd, but the revolution never amounts to much more than another power struggle. There are some people who seemed to be able to walk in this world - Dag Hammarskjold, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. come to mind - but they were all grounded and propelled primarily in a spiritual energy and I'm not hearing any such prophets these days. I'm with Francis, going to the bottom and hanging out with the prisoners and outcasts. Getting out of the game and keeping my distance. My resistance is against consumerism, greed, the status quo and the flurry of news and opinions. From now on, I believe more in silence and the wind in the trees than what I hear on TV.
Joseph Jarrell
7 years 11 months ago
The globalists on both sides of the aisle brought the problems upon us. Technology and automation does displace some, but not so many that we could not retrain and adapt our way out of it. However, globalist policies, such as unfettered free trade agreements, are not good for the American worker, least of all unionized labor. Is it not obvious that when you have the highest wages in the world, the only direction to go is down? Even if you get a small cost of living raise, it will not keep pace with the true cost of living, so your real income is declining. As long as our market is open to outside production using outside labor, that will be the case. It is sad, really. There's very little in the way of goods or services that cannot be made in this big country of ours. Import bananas. Export everything else.
Ryder Charles
7 years 10 months ago
I lived very close to Harvard Square from 1980 - 1984. Many, many people voted for Donald Trump as the lesser evil as they considered the following: > The cloud of corruption that hangs over the Clintons > The fact that Wall St was 100% behind Clinton > The fact that the banks were behind Clinton > The fact that most corporate CEO's supported Clinton > The fact that the rich Hollywood elite backed Clinton > The security violations associated with Clinton's personal email server > The mishandling of Benghazi by Secretary Clinton > The multiple accusations (including rape) levelled by women against Bill Clinton and the allegations made by his victims that Hillary enabled his behavior. > The fact that Mrs. Clinton is a full-throttled supporter of abortion rights. Remember, Pope Francis just called abortion a "horrendous crime" and that "Gaudium et Spes" called it an "unspeakable crime". I have close friends who are alumni of Georgetown who voted for Trump. There are many of us who don't fit the profile of "deplorables".
Barbara DeCoursey Roy
7 years 10 months ago
These articles by Fr. Clooney are why I subscribe to America. Thoughtful, erudite, practical resources for reflection and growth in the Spirit. Thank you!

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