“If the Almighty God came down and said, ‘Joe, step down,’ I would step down,” President Joe Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on July 5. But, he went on to say, “The Almighty God is not going to come down.”
To be honest, his comments reminded me of the old joke about a man who is told he has to evacuate his house because a flood is coming, but refuses to leave because he believes God will help him. As the waters rise, a boat comes to pick him up, and later a helicopter. In both cases, he insisted that God would help him.
Finally he drowns. Standing at the gates of heaven, he cries out to God: “Where have you been?” And God says: “What are you talking about? I sent ships and helicopters as a warning.”
With many of the president’s allies turning against him, his approval ratings disastrous, and, more importantly, his growing weakness, one might wonder: what more does God need to do, really?
But at the same time, it is clear that Joe Biden is a man with a genuine spiritual life. When he goes to mass or quotes the Bible, there is no sense of irony or propaganda. He is not doing what he thinks will get him votes, nor is he saying what we want to hear. (In fact, his public embrace of the Catholic faith is often treated as an Achilles heel by some who seek to undermine him.) As is the case in Biden’s political life, the references to God seem rather to stem from his true beliefs and experiences.
Taking his faith seriously, I was thinking about what resources we at the church could provide him during this very difficult time, and knowing that he loves exercise, I came up with some Bible verses that he could turn to as a little spiritual discipline in his life right now.
Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.”
It’s so hard for anyone to really stay grounded. Life is just so busy. And sometimes, the normal prayer of petitioning God just stimulates our brains even more and makes us feel more isolated.
What I love about this verse from Psalm 46 is that it doesn’t ask us to think about anything — no stories to imagine, no thoughts to ponder or wrestle with — it’s just an invitation to let go and allow God to care for us, to rock us the way a parent rocks a child in distress.
Like any spiritual practice, this may trigger something, a feeling or experience that causes us to think about our current situation in a new way, but it can also be like a lullaby that we sit back and repeat slowly in our minds like a mantra, to let the Divine love us.
When Biden won the election, he recited the similarly inspired Catholic hymn “On Eagles’ Wings.” If the president can connect with God through music, it might be just as meaningful for him to go somewhere private to listen to that song and nourish his soul.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
In his acceptance speech, Biden also quoted this passage from Ecclesiastes, a rich poem filled with life’s imagery: “A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to tear, and a time to sew.”
I always find it so comforting to see the ups and downs of our lives summarized like this. What can seem overwhelming on its own takes on a different proportion here. It might be worth just sitting down and reading this passage and seeing if doing so helps you see things in a fresh perspective.
Also, if there are any words that particularly inspire you, it might be worth writing them down. Which words from Ecclesiastes inspire me the most when I read them? What part of my life am I being called to right now if I were to let God take the helm?
Matthew 26:36-43: Garden of Gethsemane
We don’t know how the president feels right now, but from the outside, the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane seems to speak to him: he faces a painful decision, either way, the horrific cross, and there may also be an element of abandonment, as his friends sleep peacefully while he suffers.
As with any reading, it may be worthwhile to just read this passage slowly a few times and see what emotions arise. Sometimes the true gift of prayer is simply feeling the sadness, pain, or anger that has been buried inside of us. Strong emotions that go unexpressed are like bottlenecks that prevent us from connecting with God and with ourselves.
Or, as we read the story, something else may stand out. We may unexpectedly identify with the disciples rather than with Jesus. Or, perhaps most importantly, the way we imagine the cup Jesus speaks of, what it looks like, what’s inside it. In our spiritual life, we try to trust our intuition, trusting that God is always trying to speak to us in words we can understand. What seems important is what seems important.
No doubt many of us have opinions about whether Biden should still run for president in 2024. But if we see him as a fellow Catholic going through a very difficult time, maybe we can take a step back and treat him as we would want to be treated in our own time of hardship: praying that he may know the mercy of the God who created him, who loves him, and who wants to set us all free.
