Getting our act together politically
We have just finished our elections. Most of our elected officials have been proclaimed. They now wait for their inauguration. Only a few things need to be cleaned up. What we have before us now is the continuing duty to get our act together politically as one people with one common goal under one God.
This is not, of course, an easy and simple task. It is complex, dynamic, endless. This is where politics enters, the art of organizing ourselves as one nation, the different views and positions made to blend into an operative unity so we attain true progress and development, and avoid unproductive quarreling.
This duty involves everyone of us, each one playing his own part well, the one proper to each one but open to everyone and everything else in a healthy spirit of solidarity that is working for the common good.
For this to take off well, we first have to learn to accept the officials voted by the majority of the people in spite of some serious differences we may have with them.
They may be the very personification of the devil, or just a bunch of incompetent movie stars and mere dynastic heirs, but we have to recognize them as our duly elected leaders and follow and help them as best as we can.
Then as much as possible also, we should study the issues thoroughly, giving priority consideration to their basic and essential aspects before we choose the different alternatives offered from the angles of ideology, political parties and agenda, and many other socio-economic and cultural options.
We will always have differences, and we just have to learn how to grapple with them without unduly compromising the peace and public order since these are basic in social life.
This is, of course, easier said than done. When to assert and when to acquiesce, when to push and when to lay back, etc., are acts that need a deeper principle than what common sense or mere human prudence can offer.
This is where everyone of us would realize that we need to have recourse to a higher source of wisdom and prudence, and this can be no other than our sense of faith and religion, our relation with God.
That’s why, I was happy to read recently a speech of the Holy Father reminding us of this crucial point. These were his words:
“Religion is decisive in this, especially when it teaches fraternity and peace, and when, in a society marked by secularization, it instructs the faithful to give space to God and to be open to the transcendent.
“With the exclusion of religion from the public realm, as well as religious fundamentalism, the encounter and collaboration for the progress of humanity between peoples is impeded, the life of a society is void of motivation, and politics assumes an oppressive and aggressive face.”
I hope everyone of us, especially our political leaders, profoundly feel the real import of these words. Politics simply cannot be a function of practical reasoning, no matter how indispensable it also is.
Politics has to touch base and remain in living contact with God and his providence. As Popes have been teaching for generations, politics is a very important realm for the exercise of charity, true charity in its ever-widening social implications, from the parochial to the international to the cosmic.
For this purpose, a lot of education is needed. Genuinely Christian politicians have to be formed who are not only popular, but are also competent, grounded on the Church’s social doctrine and convinced that politics can and should be a path for no less than sanctity to them.
They have to learn to read minds and signs of the times so as to know the real needs of the people at a given time. They need the virtue of prudence in a rather advanced development state, so they would know how to act, given the changing circumstances.
The skills of communication, dialogue and other practical qualities should always be honed. They have to understand that their mission is to serve, their authority is for service. All the perks and privileges of their position are subordinate to this principle.
We need to be broken in into this kind of thinking. What is more common nowadays is a political culture that is deprived of its ultimately religious dimension. It is trapped in the peripherals,
making a lot of noise but hardly performing as it should be, pursuing its real goal. We need to change.
(Fr. cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@gmail.com)
