OUR times, I believe, call us to be tough yet flexible,
tolerant yet
discerning. And now that we are in an election season, these qualities
are in great need.
To be sure, the only and best way to acquire these seemingly
contrasting traits is to be with God, to have a living relationship
with him, where an intimate and ongoing conversation between him and
us takes place.
Some people are questioning the feasibility of such a situation, that
is, to be able to talk with God. I don’t know where they get that
idea, since as far as I as well as many others are concerned, God is
everywhere and he wants us to talk to him.
We need to reinforce our belief that only in God can we have
everything. Let’s be wary of suggestions, now becoming very popular,
that there are things in which God has absolutely nothing to say or
contribute and that we are just on our own to think, say and do
whatever we want.
A passage from the Psalms can remind us of this need for God. “The
Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my
helper, and in him will I put my trust. My protector and the horn of
my salvation, and my support.” (18,2)
Sad to say, there are now a rising number of politicians who not only
put God and his Church aside, but also mock and openly attack him and
the Church. Or to be politically correct, they also make appeals to
God but a God according to their own terms, a god and church of their
own making.
Some have gone to the extent of saying that this business of
including God in politics, for example, hinders their freedom and
effectiveness. In short, that God is a spoiler.
And they can be Catholics who pride themselves to be good Catholics
because according to them, they do this and do that, just like any
fawning politician would parrot, and yet they go against Church
doctrine.
They even dare to say that the Church should change, otherwise it
will be depleted of members, and that there would be a mass exodus of
faithful to other sects, etc.
I would say, no problem, since the Church has always experienced this
mass exodus in the past and it will still continue to have such thing
in the future. Remember that even in the time of Christ, massive
defections already took place, and in spite of the systemic
persecutions through the years, it is still around.
That thinking of some of our Catholic politicians or politicized
Catholics only show their poor and politicized understanding of what
it means to be in the Church. It would indicate they think of the
Church as a kind of prison such that they now are threatening a
massive jailbreak. Well, they can go ahead. No one is preventing them.
With moral issues now becoming more and more political, we have to
make sure that God is in the middle of politics. Of course, there is
such thing as autonomy of temporal matters like politics and business,
and the often-misunderstood doctrine of the separation of Church and
state, but all this does not mean God has no place in politics.
Quite the contrary. If God is not in our temporal affairs, then those
temporal affairs would be harmful to us. They would not be ruled by
truth, justice and charity, mercy and prudence, but merely by human
calculations that will always benefit the strong, the powerful, the
rich more than everybody else.
If we still want our country to be God-fearing, then we have to be
wary of candidates peddling platforms that not only are alien to faith
but are in open war against God and his Church.
There are now initiatives started by some lay people, perhaps with
some inspiration from Church leaders, to precisely put God in
politics. That thing about the Team Buhay vs. Team Patay is one of
them. I hope there be more.
I am thinking of some groups vetting all the candidates as to their
position about moral issues. Obviously, all this should be done in
great delicacy and respect, with courteous dialogue and positive
explanations made rather than indulging in gutter language and logic.
Also, that all this should be done with clear delineation as to what
properly falls to the clerics to do and what the lay faithful ought to
do. May God bless us all!
discerning. And now that we are in an election season, these qualities
are in great need.
To be sure, the only and best way to acquire these seemingly
contrasting traits is to be with God, to have a living relationship
with him, where an intimate and ongoing conversation between him and
us takes place.
Some people are questioning the feasibility of such a situation, that
is, to be able to talk with God. I don’t know where they get that
idea, since as far as I as well as many others are concerned, God is
everywhere and he wants us to talk to him.
We need to reinforce our belief that only in God can we have
everything. Let’s be wary of suggestions, now becoming very popular,
that there are things in which God has absolutely nothing to say or
contribute and that we are just on our own to think, say and do
whatever we want.
A passage from the Psalms can remind us of this need for God. “The
Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my
helper, and in him will I put my trust. My protector and the horn of
my salvation, and my support.” (18,2)
Sad to say, there are now a rising number of politicians who not only
put God and his Church aside, but also mock and openly attack him and
the Church. Or to be politically correct, they also make appeals to
God but a God according to their own terms, a god and church of their
own making.
Some have gone to the extent of saying that this business of
including God in politics, for example, hinders their freedom and
effectiveness. In short, that God is a spoiler.
And they can be Catholics who pride themselves to be good Catholics
because according to them, they do this and do that, just like any
fawning politician would parrot, and yet they go against Church
doctrine.
They even dare to say that the Church should change, otherwise it
will be depleted of members, and that there would be a mass exodus of
faithful to other sects, etc.
I would say, no problem, since the Church has always experienced this
mass exodus in the past and it will still continue to have such thing
in the future. Remember that even in the time of Christ, massive
defections already took place, and in spite of the systemic
persecutions through the years, it is still around.
That thinking of some of our Catholic politicians or politicized
Catholics only show their poor and politicized understanding of what
it means to be in the Church. It would indicate they think of the
Church as a kind of prison such that they now are threatening a
massive jailbreak. Well, they can go ahead. No one is preventing them.
With moral issues now becoming more and more political, we have to
make sure that God is in the middle of politics. Of course, there is
such thing as autonomy of temporal matters like politics and business,
and the often-misunderstood doctrine of the separation of Church and
state, but all this does not mean God has no place in politics.
Quite the contrary. If God is not in our temporal affairs, then those
temporal affairs would be harmful to us. They would not be ruled by
truth, justice and charity, mercy and prudence, but merely by human
calculations that will always benefit the strong, the powerful, the
rich more than everybody else.
If we still want our country to be God-fearing, then we have to be
wary of candidates peddling platforms that not only are alien to faith
but are in open war against God and his Church.
There are now initiatives started by some lay people, perhaps with
some inspiration from Church leaders, to precisely put God in
politics. That thing about the Team Buhay vs. Team Patay is one of
them. I hope there be more.
I am thinking of some groups vetting all the candidates as to their
position about moral issues. Obviously, all this should be done in
great delicacy and respect, with courteous dialogue and positive
explanations made rather than indulging in gutter language and logic.
Also, that all this should be done with clear delineation as to what
properly falls to the clerics to do and what the lay faithful ought to
do. May God bless us all!
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