“Be not deceived; God is not mocked;
for what things a man shall sow, these also shall he reap.”
We are entering into that time of the year when a great deal will be said
about politics and the routine of electing new officials at the various
levels of government. We are already seeing “straw polls” and debates on
the television, and next summer the State will hold a primary and then, in
the fall, a general election. I urge you to be informed about such things,
and caution you that Florida is a “closed primary” state—that is to say that
you must be registered as a member of the party if you wish to vote in that
party’s primary election.
In one sense, the Church has nothing to say about politics. Temporal
governments operated for thousands of years before Almighty God founded His
Church; even before He made the Old Covenant with Abraham. It is up to
those who have a stake in worldly affairs to determine what form of
government and what sort of economic policies best suit their needs. Our
Lord Himself, and great saints like Saint Paul and Saint Thomas Aquinas,
recognized the legitimacy of governments formed without the direct
supervision of the Church.
But in another sense, the Church makes an important contribution to the
political process by speaking to the moral issues that may be influenced by
civil governments. Saint Thomas tells us that civil governments are more—or
less—legitimate, insofar as they reflect and facilitate God's natural law.
That is to say that a government is good to the degree that it enables its
citizens to live according to the Commandments. The Commandments, as we
know, simply reflect the way in which men and women will best relate to one
another and to their Creator. Where this goes unrecognized by government,
the rights of the citizens will be infringed to some degree. (And,
obviously, there are degrees of this infringement.)
We ought to bear in mind that the Commandments represent a “Law”; one that
we are required to obey; and one that we are required to see that our
government obeys, at least to the extent of each citizen's influence. This
means that, throughout the year, and particularly as election time
approaches, we have a responsibility to know what our elected
representatives are up to, to vote against those who oppose God's law, and
support those who uphold it. We have a responsibility to know something
about the issues facing government, the positions of candidates and office
holders, and to make well-reasoned political decisions. We are responsible
for the world in which we live.
The saintly Pope Leo XIII wrote:
Legislation is
the work of men invested with power, and who, in fact, govern
the nation; therefore it follows that, practically, the quality
of the laws depends more upon the quality of these men than upon
the power. The laws will be good or bad accordingly as the minds
of the legislators are imbued with good or bad principles, and
as they allow themselves to be guided by political prudence or
by passion.
It is essential that we elect good people to public office
Saint Paul tells us today, that, “what things a man shall sow, these also
shall he reap.” We should apply this to our responsibility in public
affairs, but also in our own private day to day behavior. Unfortunately,
though, many of us have all but stopped trying to discern good from evil.
We might say that we have lost what, years ago, was called the “horror of
sin.” Altogether too many modern people have been conditioned to think that
sin is something funny, something clever, perhaps even something to be
imitated. Pick up any modern novel, see a movie, turn on the TV, or read a
newspaper; and you will see the ugliness of sin glorified as though it were
something noble.
Instead of having a natural repugnance for such sins, modern man has been
conditioned to view theft as prudence, to equate adultery with good health,
to hold violence in esteem, to honor atheism and idolatry as just “another
point of view.” All too often we chuckle when someone tells a “dirty joke,”
or loudly misuses the name of God, or says something to disparage the family
or the holiness of marriage. We seem to admire the criminal and the
politician who “get away with something,” especially if the "something" is
really big.
Saint Paul is calling on us today to recognize that sin is corruption; that
it “stinks” like something rotting; that it takes a man who is whole and
entire, and subjects a part of him to decay and decomposition; that it
takes a soul that is beautiful and turns it into something that is ugly and
putrid and detestable.
He calls upon us to recognize the ugliness of sin in ourselves, and also to
point it out to our neighbors, especially our fellow Christians not by
way of judgment, but by way of fraternal correction. “Instruct such a one
in the spirit of meekness,” he tells us. We might think of this as trying
to keep the souls of our neighbors beautiful and pleasing to God, not as
having a good laugh over their ugly appearance. A loving mother might tell
her son to go and change his dirty shirt, but she won't make use of his poor
appearance as an excuse to hurt him, or as an opportunity to make herself
feel superior. The same is true of fraternal correction—we might admonish
sinners not to sin, but we must never glory by comparing ourselves to them;
let alone rejoice in the possibility that they will suffer God's punishment.
“While we have time, let us work good to all men....” That means in all of
our affairs, both public and private, both secular and religious. For “God
is not mocked” —we are responsible for what we do, and for what those around
us do—particularly, Saint Paul tells us, if they “are of the household of
the faith.”
As we approach the election next year, let us keep firmly in mind that in a
republic such as ours, we are responsible for what our nation does.
Ultimately, we are the ones who make the nation’s policies—we can’t blame
them on “the king” or on “the dictator”—it is we who are responsible.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked;
for what things a man shall sow, these also shall he reap.”
