“Through a glass, darkly” is a powerful poetic image that has always resonated with me. It conveys the truth that, although we humans convince ourselves that we can see clearly enough to know what’s going on, in fact we are not seeing clearly. Our vision is constrained, limited by our own limitations–not poor vision per se but our own human frailties.

The biblical passage that contains those four words is found in St. Pauls’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13. His letter includes other memorable phrases that may be familiar, including this:

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

However, the full chapter is not about limited vision. Actually, its subject is charity (and its absence), which seems particularly relevant at this moment in time. It concludes with this memorable line:

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

I admit that I spent a lot of years seeing “through a glass, darkly,” convinced that I knew what was what, and lacking the humility to consider that my foresight and sight might be limited. Because of my misplaced confidence in my 20/20 vision, I know I fell short in what is the true message of the entire passage, the admonition to act with charity toward all.

Abraham Lincoln knew his bible, of course. His famously brief second inaugural address (delivered just 41 days before his assassination, concludes with this plea:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Charity seems sorely lacking in our society, particularly in the political world. President Trump seems to have reversed Lincoln’s plea: “With malice toward all (my opponents), with charity for none (except my strongest supporters).” You might want to read President Trump’s first inaugural address and his second, in only for the contrast with President Lincoln.

It seems to me that Trump and his enablers–entirely lacking in humility–have convinced themselves that they can see clearly. Their mantra would be Johnny Nash’s 1971 hit song, “I Can See Clearly Now,” with its shallow confidence.

“I can see clearly now the rain is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It’s gonna be a bright, bright sun shiny day

It’s gonna be a bright, bright sun shiny day.”

Trump and his enablers apparently believe that they can see all the obstacles in their way–and that nothing can stop them.

While the rest of us still see ‘as through a glass, darkly,’ what is clear is that our country has fallen far, and much faster than anyone expected. This experiment in democracy, not even 250 years old, is now in real danger.

And at this point, neither faith, nor hope, nor charity–together or separately–-will rescue us from the encroaching fascism of the second Trump administration.

What’s also required is a commitment to support, financially and otherwise, those leaders and organizations that are actively fighting against Trump and Trumpism.

My own list includes the American Civil Liberties Union, politicians like Jamie Raskin and Chris Murphy, and voter registration organizations across the country.

I’m sure you have your own list. Please keep contributing, fighting, and encouraging others.

Thank you….

Here in its entirety is Chapter 13 of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.