Election season can be difficult. The intense rhetoric and heightened polarization of today’s society can strain our personal relationships or disrupt our inner peace. This new miniseries offers practical suggestions for how the wisdom of the Spiritual Exercises can help cultivate a discerning spirit as we navigate another election cycle. Catch up with Part One, Part Two, and Part Three using these links.
The Spiritual Exercises reaches its dramatic climax in the Fourth Week. Jesus returns in glory to visit his mother and friends. The confusion and anguish of Jesus’ passion make way for joy and consolation. The retreat concludes with the Contemplation to Attain Divine Love in which the retreatant ponders a worldview in which the hand of God is lovingly active and ongoingly creative in all corners of the universe.
As a bridge between the suffering and confusion of the Third Week and this triumphant crescendo of the Fourth Week, many retreat directors invite retreatants to spend an entire day holding vigil near Jesus’ tomb. In place of the five structured daily prayer periods, the retreatant spends the entire day however they feel moved. Retreatants could eavesdrop on the disciples’ hushed conversations in the upper room, listening in on Peter and John rehashing Jesus’ prophecies about rising from the dead. A retreatant could humorously imagine a debate of whether Jesus’ promised three days were counting inclusively or not. One could sing songs of lament or thanksgiving. Or, a retreatant could simply sit in silence, leaning against the cold slabs of Jesus’ stony tomb, ruefully wondering what might come next for their life.
The irony for the retreatant on Tomb Day is that we know how the story ultimately ends. We have all celebrated Easter Sunday before. However, when the retreatant enters the headspace of those first followers, he or she can empathize with the emotional swings of the disciples. In my own prayerful contemplation, I imagined being a disciple who knew what Jesus had promised. I know that Jesus promised that he would return from the dead. But when all I saw was a sealed tomb, I could not be certain. Belief and trust crumbled into questioning and anxiety.
While this Tomb Day contemplation does not appear in the official retreat manual, this liminal space might capture the prevailing mood in these days at the conclusion of election season. I imagine that an eerie silence fell over Jerusalem on that first Holy Saturday as the drama, trials, and public executions ceased. Families gathered for their Sabbath dinners, perhaps arguing whether this Jesus of Nazareth was truly the Son of God. Disciples perhaps questioned if this really was the end of the story and if they needed to pack up and return home.
Likewise, the bombardment from nonstop ads during football games and the constant analysis of scant early data will soon cease. The votes will be counted. A winner will be declared. And soon after, we will return to work and later this month to family Thanksgiving dinners. We will privately wonder and perhaps publicly debate what the election outcome will mean for our lives, our country, and our world.
The only things that we can do on Tomb Day are hope and wait. We must first trust that what Jesus has promised will come to fruition. And then wait for that day, whenever that third day might be, to arrive. Likewise, in these days around the election, we too can only hope and wait. In the short-term, we must wait for the new administration to take leadership to see if they will accomplish what we had hoped—or perhaps not be as objectionable as we had dreaded. In the long-run, we must hope in the new kingdom that Jesus has proclaimed and wait for our invitation to collaborate in this project.
The Fourth Week evokes the great joy that will come when these events do come to pass as Jesus’ resurrection assures us. The following practical tips from the meditations of the Fourth Week might help us lean into this promised joy even though we might still feel stuck in the tomb:
- [229] – Ignatius suggests that the retreatant use “light or temporal comforts” to live into the joy and consolation of the resurrection. He specifically suggests feeling the warm sun in the winter or a cool breeze in the summer. We might luxuriate in other simple pleasures such as the transitioning fall colors or a delectable favorite meal to uplift our spirits during these times.
- [227] – During the Fourth Week, Ignatius suggests that the retreatant pray one less hour each day in order to relish the joys of a previous prayer period. Likewise, we might want to give ourselves a break after these polarizing weeks. Perhaps we might postpone a work task or a home chore to give ourselves a Saturday to go take a hike or try out that new restaurant in town. At least, we should carve out a few minutes each day to reflect on where we are finding joy in our lives.
- [224] – For imaging how Jesus visits his mother and friends following the Resurrection, Ignatius instructs the retreatant to reflect on how Jesus consoles his loved ones, just as friends generally console their friends. We, too, continue this ministry of reconciliation these days. If we notice that a friend might be distressed following the election call, we can accompany them in their emotions but also find an appropriate time to share a bit of our Christian hope. Alternatively, we might reach out to a friend or loved one if we feel that we can use a bit of that consolation ourselves. In prayer, we should call on the resurrected Christ to bring us hope and joy if we find ourselves lacking in such things in the days ahead.
- [235/6] – In the Contemplation to Attain Divine Love, Ignatius invites the retreatant to gaze out upon the whole of creation and to see how God is active throughout. One should ponder how the marvelous plant life grows and spreads or how animals glorify God through their very existence and beautiful peculiarities. Through the Suscipe prayer, one reflects on the gift that it is to be human, with our memory that keeps the past alive within us and our reason that allows us to solve complex problems. Ignatius instinctively understood that the beauty and wonder of creation are God-given gifts that are always capable of raising our spirits.
Ignatius opens the final contemplation of the Exercises with the claim that “love ought to be put more in deeds than in words.” 1 For Ignatius, talk is cheap. When the retreatant personally encounters God’s great love for them through the arc of the Exercises, Ignatius supposes that the retreatant would feel compelled to return this love in lifelong grateful service. After all, he opens the Exercises stating that humans are created to praise, reverence, and serve God. The words of praise and acts of reverence are essential. But we must also put this love into action through service.
In the end, we could think of voting as merely a vocal act. We state with our ballots whom we prefer to lead our government for the coming years. While casting our vote is a powerful expression of our values, our work to transform the world continues well beyond Election Day. Pope Francis cites the parable of the Good Samaritan in his encyclical Fratelli tutti and calls all people of goodwill to political action. The Good Samaritan did not simply express his compassion and sympathy for the victim. The Samaritan personally cleaned his wounds, accompanied him to the inn, and paid for his lodging.
We are also called to make a return of divine love through more than words. Our Christian obligation to build up the Kingdom of God extends beyond voting and political action. Yes, we should take an hour to visit our local precinct and make our voice heard. But the hard work of shaping society begins after Election Day—for all people, not just election winners.
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