Politics and charity

GETTING into this topic, I know, is like pushing a lamb
into the company of wolves. Implausible as it may seem, we just have
to pray that the lamb can survive by following what Christ indicated:
be shrewd like serpents but innocent like doves.

            Truth is, politics has to be humanized and Christianized
through charity. It just cannot be left alone, fully at the mercy of
our passions, brute force and worldly elements. It too can and should
be a way to our sanctification. Yes, I mean that seriously.

            Politics ought to be pursued always in charity. It cannot
be any other way, since charity is the mother of all virtues and good
values. If we want justice, truth and fairness, charity has them all.
If we want competence, order, discipline, etc., again charity has
them. If we want objectivity, charity has it. Charity covers all our
needs.

            Politics is a human necessity. As social beings who have
to take care of one another, we need to undertake a continuing process
of organizing ourselves so that we can attain our common good. For
this, we have to activate the social principles of solidarity and
subsidiarity as best as we could, a tricky task, to say the least.

            That’s why we have a government and many other structures,
social, cultural, economic, etc., to attend to our different needs,
and we elect leaders and officers to run these organizations. This is
the nature, purpose and mechanics of politics.

            But just like anything human, we will always have some
problems. It seems that we like to create problems, which should also
not be viewed exclusively in a negative way, since these problems only
show we are humans, and they point to us where our weaknesses are and
where we should improve. They are a golden opportunity for God’s grace
to descend on us. So, let’s just be sport in all this.

            Our main problem at the moment is that the lofty nature of
politics is often corrupted and its objective frustrated by the ugly
workings of the otherwise legitimate pursuit for power, an integral
part of politics.

            Now that election time is coming, we are at present
confronted with the raw shenanigans of politicians. All of sudden, we
seem to have a storm surge of mudslinging, demolition jobs,
orchestrated p.r. campaigns to practically canonize a politician and
demonize another.

            The spectacle is actually very funny and ridiculous, but
it continues even up to now in spite of all the advances in our
sciences, arts, technologies and communication. It seems that in the
area of political culture, we continue to lag behind, to hardly emerge
from the savagery of the Stone Age.

            Instead of being discerning, prudent and nuanced in our
judgments and assessments of politicians, we readily fall into
simplistic, black-and-white ways of thinking and reasoning. We tend to
dogmatize and absolutize our preferences and opinions, hardly giving
any credit to the opposing positions of the others.

            In short, we tend to listen only to ourselves. Reckless
generalizations and labeling are made. Some, for example, blame the
‘masa’ for being unthinking in their choices. But I have also listened
to the so-called intelligentsia and in many instances have also found
their conclusions overworked and unfair.

            I suppose that to be realistic we have to consider all
politicians to have something good to offer and also some baggage that
they suffer. Let’s just sort things out slowly and calmly, weighing
them carefully, hoping to make a workable, fair balance.

            Let’s remember that as one movie blurb put it, every saint
has a past, and every sinner has a future. We are always a work in
progress. We can go either up or down, though we should always hope
and work together that we always go north rather than south.

            Let’s avoid getting wild with our judgments, practically
getting mad with praises for the favored politician or running amok
with burning hatred for the unfavored. Let’s play it cool

            We have to look first at the competence of the politicians
to deliver the goods we need, since this is the immediate expectation
we have from them. We have to see that they are capable of good
governance, even if they continue to be sinners as we all, in varying
degrees, are.

            As to their moral life, let’s just help them to be upright
and to always feel the need for conversion. As to their legal
problems, let us have our legal system take care of them. As much as
possible, we avoid media circus because of these.