It’s not immediately clear which message, or which candidate for that matter, will win next week. Regardless of political views or candidate preferences, the stalemate between these two completely different candidates is sure to cause anxiety in the final days of the election. I know I’m starting to feel uneasy and anxious, given the risks of this choice.

This situation led me to look back at what I wrote in my columns before the 2016 and 2020 Presidential elections. In both cases, as in this article, I reached the deadline before the election took place. And in light of current circumstances, I was wondering what I thought and said eight or four years ago.

While working as a columnist in 2016 America magazineI had a deadline shortly before the election for a column that was scheduled to be published the week after the election. In that column, I tried to look forward What happens after the votes are cast and counted? I asked: “What will happen after the elections? Can anything be done to mend the divisions that have been so sharply drawn? How can we stem the endless tide of fear, hatred and anger?”

Despite the unprecedented turmoil and harsh criticism of the 2016 general election, I argued that “women and men of faith have the resources and responsibility to do something proactively, encouraging all people in these difficult times.” I noted the prophetic wisdom of St. Francis of Assisi, who believed that to be truly and fully human, it was essential to be a peacemaker and reconciler. I believed that no matter how the election turned out, we had a chance to preserve our human decency and social harmony.

But then the Trump administration took office and the next four years often pushed the boundaries of legality and human decency.

I wrote a letter on the eve of the 2020 presidential election. column for NCR This was both a little more brutal and still hopeful. Benefiting from Pope Francis’ then newly published circular letter Fratelli TuttiWhatever the outcome of the election, what we need to move forward is to avoid skepticism (something that has become common in the Trump years), preserve memory (especially “dangerous memories,” the late theologian Fr. Johann Baptist Metz put it in) and restore a sense of our common humanity.

Now, as we stand on the threshold of another historic and important election, I find myself once again wondering how to think about the present and the future. As in 2020, I want to resist the temptation to easily embrace skepticism in the face of a presidential race that shouldn’t be this close. But we still see sarcastic reactions everywhere, from pundits on television to neighbors, friends and family members.

Preservation of memory, the necessary preservation of facts and facts about reality necessary to live honestly and productively, has seemingly gone out the window. How quickly people forget what life was like under the first Trump administration, especially when unexpected crises like the global pandemic arise.

What’s more disturbing is whitewashing The January 6 riots that led to deaths at the U.S. Capitol pose a real threat to democracy and national security. This dangerous memory has been erased or suppressed from the minds of millions of people.

And as for restoring a sense of common humanity, that feels like an increasingly impossible task today. Trump’s inhumane rhetoric on the campaign trail and the permission structure he has given his supporters to do the same at the local level are as deeply disturbing as they are unchristian. Even before his racist and misogynistic statements earlier this month View of Madison Square Garden Last weekend, Trump’s speeches and statements regarding marginalized populations were compared by journalists to speeches by Hitler and other dictators Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic.

So that’s less than a week away from the end of voting and possibly the start of post-election slow counting, recounts and lawsuits?

It’s hard not to be pessimistic. If Harris wins, it can certainly be assumed that intelligent, mature and qualified adults will be at the head of the executive branch of the US government. But that doesn’t mean tensions will dissipate or that Trump will surrender without a fight (he’s almost certain he’ll do everything he can to do so). disrupt the peaceful transition of power(As he and his followers did after the 2020 election).

If Trump wins, it can certainly be assumed that those appointed to the highest positions in the executive branch will not be judged on their competence, experience, or etiquette, but solely on their willingness to do what Trump says, regardless of its legality or ethics. Loyalty – and blind loyalty This is the only virtue Trump has put forward that makes sense for himself; This means that most of the so-called “adults” who were allegedly in the room the first time won’t offer any restraints this time.

As much as I hate to admit it, the implications of either outcome make me think apocalyptically. Not in the sense that we will immediately be dragged into a “Third World War” or that we will drag our society into a second American Civil War.

My point is that it may be hard to find hope right now, and so I have come to rely on my Christian faith in the eschatological future. The problem here is that this can turn into a kind of spiritual escape, a kind of Christian Pollyanna-esque delusion that tries to escape the present by placing all one’s hopes in the future where everything will be okay.

But this is not the true Christian hope, which demands something of us now, knowing that God always draws near to us, including in difficult and uncertain times.

The Second Vatican Council makes this clear: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium and SpesThe main purpose of civil governments is to protect and promote the public interest. Moreover, he makes clear that those who ignore our earthly responsibilities to our neighbors, especially our most vulnerable, are not living their Christian faith appropriately because of a distorted focus on the afterlife. “Those who look for a future city, knowing that we do not have a permanent city here, and therefore think that they can escape from their worldly responsibilities, are mistaken.”

We can’t just give up and naively hope for something better down the line. In these last days, voting and voting for the common good is not only important but essential. When the ballots are counted and the winner is announced, we must continue to work for the common good, because not to do so is to shirk our worldly responsibilities.