Dangers of politics

I have spoken of politics at such length, my children, because you have the task of establishing the kingdom of Jesus Christ in all fields of human activity and in all temporal endeavours, and also because those of you who freely work in public life need to be very aware of the dangers of politics.

I referred to these risks earlier. I spoke of the danger that the exercise of power could end up deforming one’s conscience, the danger of not respecting other people’s just freedom, and the danger of compromising the Church or the Work. But there are even more general dangers: the danger of ambition, the danger of the passions (for example, nationalism or party spirit), and the danger of losing supernatural outlook and forgetting God’s action in the world and in human hearts.

Here, some words of Sacred Scripture fit like a glove: He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end (Eccles 3:11). That is, man fails to grasp God’s admirable wisdom, which shines out and will shine out in the Creator’s works from the beginning of the world to the end. With political arguments and rivalries, man easily forgets that it is God who does things, who gives an impulse to all that is good, and who has made us free.