CURRENT EVENTS

“I Live Politics
the Way I
Live My Life”
“It’s talked about every two years, then it’s forgotten.” What is the challenge of the electoral season? Excerpts from a talk by MARCOS ZERBINI, candidate for São Paulo Parliament.

I think it’s good to have an opinion on politics, but what concerns me is the sensation that everyone considers politics as separate from life, an episode that recurs every two years and that arouses discussion, but then another two years pass, and people live their everyday lives, and forget politics.
I think, then, that the first essential thing is to understand that politics isn’t separate from life. Politics is part of life, integrated into life. Often people ask me, “How does one live politics?” I answer, “In the same way you live life,” because in politics I should not be different from how I am in life. If we want to learn from the Movement, from Fr. Giussani, from Fr. Carrón, we have to be serious in life, we have to be serious in politics, we have to be serious in work, in family, at school… we have to be serious everywhere. We have to be truly serious! People continue to treat politics as something separate from life, but I think that one should learn to erase this dichotomy, to not separate things. If we don’t do it, if we don’t get used to discussing political issues on every occasion, to evaluating everything, to intervening, there will be increasingly greater distance between us. And every two years, we’ll have to face something very annoying. Every year, it’ll be more boring and, every year, we’ll say we have less chance.
So I think it’s urgent for us to be concerned about politics, like everything else, and not just at election time. People need to begin to understand that there are people who have this vocation.
What is politics in its essence? Politics is the art of the common good. I believe that all those who have a vocation for the art of the common good should begin to discuss politics. They have to begin to participate, to consider what actions can be taken to help the community, to change the reality we live in. Because politics as well only has meaning if you know the reason you’re doing it. For me, why does politics have meaning? Because I belong to a people, and politics is the instrument for helping build the common good, the good of the people. If it’s not this way, it has no meaning. If, in the community, you don’t start trying to get involved in politics, concerning yourselves with how to build the good of the community, the good of the people you love or are fond of, politics will always be something abstract. It will always be something separate from life.
This is a fundamental topic: it is an obligation, whether you like it or not, unfortunately or fortunately, I don’t know, but you can’t live without politics. Because the city, the state, the country live “thanks” to politicians, who in turn are the portrait of the people among whom they live. People say, “Politicians are bad.” They’re “bad” because the poor are also “bad,” because the people don’t participate, don’t live this life, because they live very far from this world.
Either we take it seriously, or it’s silliness. I ask you, if only every two years you cared about your job or your children, what do you think would happen? It would be a tragedy. The big problem I see in politics is precisely this: it’s only thought about every two years.

A group of friends. I believe it’s fundamental that one can discuss politics in this electoral season, and that without a doubt it is essential to have an opinion on politics. But here I want to challenge you: the people who intend to build the common good have to leave here with the commitment to discuss politics every day of their lives. If they don’t do it personally, in two years we’ll all be here again asking the Movement to express a judgment in the place of the people. And nothing will change. Nothing will be transformed. Either we begin to wake up the people who have a vocation–and these people begin to have a voice in the community, that will begin to assert itself with greater awareness–or every two years the people will always repeat the same things. This is a reflection that today, here, I wanted to share almost as a side remark. But, actually, it’s much more: it’s a challenge. I believe that the people who have this vocation should begin to unite.
Some time ago, together with some people from Rio de Janeiro who are active in public life, we spoke a bit about politics. What can truly change politics? In the political world, people should repeat the same experience they have in the Movement: build a true group of friends, who care about the life of the others, who want to demonstrate how it is possible to build true friendships also in the political world. These are people who, beyond differences, desire to build the common good and, starting from this, to live reality in full. There’s no other way, no other solution.
It won’t be a great political project that changes the world. What can change the world is a true friendship, people who truly love each other: starting from this, things can begin to change. You just have to change; you don’t need a grand political project. At times, people ask me, “What is the criterion we have to use to decide?” It’s very simple, according to me. In the first place, the criterion is to consider what best helps to build the Church. Or, put differently, for those of us who belong to the Church, we can ask ourselves, “What is the least damaging for the Church?”

Building the person. In the second place, politics should “believe in the person,” should help build the person. Otherwise, what we’re living within the Movement would have no meaning. If we live in the Movement, which affirms that we have to encounter a human being to encounter Christ, today we have to seek those who help us to build the human. What kind of politics do I want? That which helps build the person, or that which makes people dependent on the government? What is the State I want? Do I want one that helps write laws that help the Church, that help build the Church, or do I want a State that writes laws that destroy the Church, that destroy what the Church believes in? For me, it’s really simple to understand what the criteria are. People don’t need a big political or theological or sociological or any other kind of treatise to make a decision. People want to see who is committed–they want to know the story of the people who are committing themselves–and then they ask, “Who is working more to build the person and the Church?”
People also need to take a step ahead, to begin to discuss, to study, to engage in politics. Good politics. The politics that really change the world. Ah, but it’s hard! Naturally, it’s hard. And who said it would be easy? Christ didn’t come to promise the people tranquility. Actually, He came to say, “You will earn the cross, but then I guarantee you the Resurrection.” I think that it’s our job to accept the challenge of carrying the cross, with the certainty of the Resurrection.