I WAS amused to see recently the photo of US President Barack Obama with Pope Benedict XVI. The differences between these two leaders, as is widely known, could hardly be any bigger, and yet there they were, smiling in a cordial meeting.
It’s a lesson to all to learn how to go above serious differences so that the gap can be bridged somehow. And this for the good of the whole world. But, of course, efforts should continue to resolve the conflict. These should never stop.
Sad to say, in our local scene, we have Church leaders whose attitude toward our political leaders is regrettable. And to think that the differences between them are not so much doctrinal, moral or ethical as merely political! There’s really no reason to go down to sarcasm and name-calling.
Obviously, the Pope and the US President have come in through different routes. One is a spiritual leader, whose election is through a college of high ecclesiastics. The other is a national, and to a certain extent, world leader chosen by popular vote.
They have different backgrounds, outlooks and ways. And though they play in different fields, we have to understand that their differences should be only a matter of distinction, not so much of conflict, since both serve the same people for the common good.
Their authority ultimately comes from God, though this truth may not be clear to one of them. In Obama’s retake of his oath of office, since there was a mistake in the first one, he did not bother to swear by the Bible, a standard practice.
That may not mean much, but then again it can already reflect an attitude that’s becoming clear given other actuations that indicate he thinks little of religion. We still have to follow how things unfold. The drama continues.
In the photo op, I could not avoid looking at the eyes of both men. Eyes can be both mirrors and windows of what’s inside. And without making undue judgments, some thoughts came, reminding me of certain things.
Both men look charismatic and clever, but we have to distinguish where that charisma and cleverness come. There’s certainly charisma and cleverness that come from God. But they can also come from the world, if not from the devil.
Our Lord wants us to be clever as serpents even as we should also be innocent as doves. A truly God-fearing leader should really know how to combine these qualities together.
The cleverness of the world and the devil is most cunning and subtle. Remember that in the temptation of Christ in the desert, the devil quoted Scripture.
Evil and temptations always make use of the truth, since the truth is always the raw material for doing good or evil. In the case of evil use, truth is distorted, twisted or deformed. It can also be misused with the wrong intention.
There’s also wisdom and prudence that come from God, as well as appearances of these virtues that can come from the flesh, the world and the devil. We have to be very discerning.
At these times, not only should we know how to read the signs of the times. No matter how tentative, we have to learn to read minds and souls, and to be wary of the many tricks and traps strewn along the way.
We have to be careful with the deliberately planned multi-effects, both good and bad, that public actuations of public figures possess. They are presented to us cleverly packaged with the appeal to tolerance and respect for plurality of opinions and views.
In a recent issue of the ultra-liberal American news-magazine Newsweek, an article trumpeted that Obama now represents the American Catholics better than the Pope. That’s supposedly due to Obama’s more tolerant views on abortion and other ethical issues.
It seems that now, faith and religion are a matter of sociology, of personal views only. They are not anymore about divine revelation, about a thoroughly theological understanding of the doctrine of the faith.
In his meeting with the Pope, Obama said he will try to reduce the “number” of abortions. He initially said he will reduce the “need” for abortions, even if at the beginning the number may still go up.
But he already missed the boat. Perhaps it’s this kind of reasoning that gives him an appearance of consistency between his stated policy and his move now to have universal access to abortion. This is the kind of cleverness we have to be careful about.
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