inside america

POLITICS, JUDGMENT,
AND CHARITY
How does the link between charity and truth allow us to judge the current political issues? The answer in a hymn from the Liturgy of the Hours.

by lorenzo albacete

In his latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI insists on the link that must exist between charity and truth in order to prevent our understanding of charity from being a matter of pure sentimentality, exposing us to the manipulation of power, unable to introduce something new that changes human history. The Holy Father insists that this link between charity and our knowledge of reality is absolutely necessary if we are to understand the social doctrine of the Church and the kind of political involvement grounded in the Church’s teachings. This is particularly urgent today in view of the political ideological clash provoked by President Obama’s healthcare proposals. How does the link between charity and truth allow us to judge the current fierce political debate about healthcare? Other English-speaking countries do not have the same healthcare clash, but the question is the same: what is political action based on a faith illumined by charity?
This is the same concern discussed by Fr. Giussani in the book on charity to be introduced soon to English-speaking readers. Reflecting on how the Pope and Giussani express the same concern in different words, I read a hymn in my Spanish-language Liturgy of the Hours (Friday Lauds of the first week in ordinary time) that, in my opinion, outlines the path toward political judgments grounded on Christian faith and hope, and illuminated by charity. Following is my translation of the hymn with brief comments.

I need you like this:
of flesh and blood I need you.

We need to know God’s will, but how can we know it? How can we be certain of what it is? The Bible contains so many apparent contradictions! How should I interpret the Bible? I need God to speak to me in words I understand. I need the Word of God to become flesh and bones, like I am.

The soul looks for you carefully amidst the cyclone of stars,
and in the tumult and symphony of the heavens.
Searching behind the mysteries of life,
the soul penetrates the chaos and tames time,
finding You, the Father of causes,
the Prime Mover.

 There is first the “religious sense” that orients my heart to the Infinite, where I discern the Presence of a Mystery that contains the key to my existence.

 But the cold of the abyss disturbs us,
and vertigo threatens us in the days of God,
and the soul needs a living fire and something to grasp.

However, this is not enough to satisfy the needs and desires in my heart. I need something to grasp in the dizzying summit of my heart’s desire to know this Mystery and discover God’s will.

You created me a human being, not the naked
immateriality of thought.
I am a small incarnation,
the embodied splendor of art;
the word is the flesh of the idea:
all of creation is an incarnation!
And the one who placed this law in my nothingness,
made flesh His Word!
Made tangible, human, fraternal.

I need an incarnation. I need flesh and bones. The Word that becomes flesh and blood, that I can see, hear, touch…

To anoint the feet that search my way,
To feel your hands on my blind eyes,
To rest, like John, in your bosom,
And to kiss you, like Judas without the treason!

I am flesh, and I want you flesh!
Oh Charity which came into my poverty,
How well you speak my dialect!
In this way, suffering, bodily, as a friend,
how well I understand you!
Sweet madness of mercy,
both of us made of flesh and bones!

The Incarnation of the Word in the man Jesus of Nazareth is the fruit of God’s charity, of unconditional, absolute Love. It is within my experience of this Love that I discover the ultimate meaning of reality enabling me to judge everything that impacts my life. It is this experience that allows me to judge political issues according to the Social Doctrine of the Church. The method to follow is the same for all human beings, everywhere.