Politics a monster to be tamed

By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
October 4, 2015

IN fact, more than to be tamed, politics needs to be humanized and Christianized. It has to have a soul, proper to our human dignity as persons who by nature also belong to a society, and more, who are the image and likeness of God, children of his.

Yes, politics touches the spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our life. It just cannot be left to the forces of purely worldly conditions – economic, social, legal, cultural, historical, etc. It has to be referred to God, our Creator who continues to govern us through his providence, with which we try our best to get it in synch.

It just cannot be left alone, to be at the mercy of our instincts and passions alone. These always need purification and proper grounding and orientation that in the end could only be done if things are referred to God, and not just to some smart ideology.

If our understanding of politics falls short of this fundamental and indispensable consideration, we certainly would be in trouble. There’s no other way but for it to be like a no-man’s land, wild and chaotic in spite of appearances of law and order, and behaving like a juggernaut that inflicts more harm than good to everyone.

Giving politics its proper soul is not going to be easy, nor will it be finished definitively in our time. It flows with life itself, our collective life, in fact, and with all the complexities that such condition entails. But that’s the thrill and adventure of politics.

We have to be wary of Godless ideologies and vague principles that seem to stimulate our political activities. Among them is that Bismarckian principle that politics is the art of the possible, the attainable or the art of the next best, without clarifying what criteria and standards are to used to follow it.

If God and his laws are not given primary consideration in this regard, that political principle would certainly produce all kinds of scenarios, not all of them moral and fitting to our human and Christian dignity.

It can easily unleash Machiavellian game plans that can set aside even basic human ethics. That’s why we have been having killings, cheating, recourse to, treachery, ridiculous gimmicks, dirty tricks and other brazen political maneuverings.

It should be made clear that strictly putting God at the forefront of our political exercises does not hinder our politics. On the contrary, he will enhance it, since with him, we can always ventilate our opinions, views and positions as freely and as openly as possible, but all within the context of charity, justice and mercy.

Things simply depend on us, on how we play politics, because insofar as God in concerned, he already has given us everything for us to do politics properly. We need to realize first of all that everyone needs to pray first, and offer a lot of sacrifices for our politics, which as we are seeing these days, is getting more and more complicated due to the many issues that have to be addressed.

Politics should be an object of intense prayers and sacrifice, not to mention, an ongoing formation on our political life, since politics requires as much as possible the active participation of everyone in whatever capacity and possibility one has. The very nature of politics is participative. Everyone has a role to play there, at least, to pray and offer sacrifices.

Political leaders and those actively or directly involved in this field should strive to be first and last men and women of God, persons of integrity and appropriate political skills and competence. They should not be politicians just because of pedigree, or money, or fame.

They should know what common good is, both temporal and eternal, because everyone functions in these dimensions of time and eternity, matter and spirit. Though politicians focus more on the temporal common good, they should also know the basics of the eternal common good, so that their work in the former would not undermine their due concern for the latter.

They should be persons of deep prudence, skillful in the art of teamwork, knowing how to relate political realities to God’s plans.

Political parties should have their own respective ways of policing their ranks, seeing to it that their members are truly dedicated to their work, are persons of conviction, fidelity and purity of intention, and not just users, seekers and exploiters of opportunities.