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Good morning.

On this day in 2016, Barack Obama became the first American president to visit Cuba since 1928, the culmination of a process of reconciliation facilitated by Pope Francis. It was one of several groundbreaking initiatives of the Obama regime, some of which are detailed in the recently-published first volume of his autobiography, A Promised Land. Early on in that book, Obama notes that some of his acquaintances like to assure him they always knew he was destined to become president; and some add that they believe it was God’s will for him. Obama is uncomfortable with this certainty, and suggests that God’s plan, in his words, ‘works on a scale too large to admit our moral tribulations’ and that in any person’s lifetime, ‘accidents and happenstance determine more than we care to admit’. For him, the best we can do is to hold on to what we feel is right, and out of the confusion of the moment, play ‘with grace and nerve… the hand we’re dealt’.

There’s a humility and a realism about that view which affords all of us a measure of agency as well as a faith in an overarching and benevolent divine plan. If we can hold on to ‘grace’ and ‘nerve’ when we’re faced with all that life throws at us, there’s a good chance we’ll cope with the consequences of our own past actions and the actions of others. One, ‘grace’, is a religious concept, and the other, ‘nerve’, might be mapped onto the more religious notion of ‘fortitude’, or ‘forbearance’. The title of Obama’s book, A Promised Land, offers further religious resonances which serve as a vision of hope for us all.

Living God, give us grace and nerve to face the confusion of each moment of today, and hold the hope of a promised land before us. Amen.