Catholic Social Teaching

What’s Your Next Step? Think About Politics.

The powers of sin and death from which Jesus comes to save us are not limited to individuals. Sin and death exert an influence on families, on neighborhoods and cities, and on national and global levels. Not without good reason did St. Paul write, “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.”

• Take a minute and think about the political and social problems that keep people from flourishing. What conflicts in the world trouble you most?

Jesus was not a Republican or a Democrat. He provided us with no clear political framework, and his engagement in the political and social conflicts of the day often raises for us more questions than answers. However, from its inception, the Church could not help but involve itself in society, from early Christians forgiving those who owed them a debt of money, to the medieval building of hospitals for the poor, to the contemporary efforts of agencies like Catholic Relief Services to provide the most vulnerable with access to basic health care.

• Take another minute and consider how the Church is called to respond to the political and social problems that you envisioned above. Are there specific groups or ministries designed to face these conflicts? How might you find out?

“No religion or politics at the dinner table!” often goes the rule. We’re not always very skillful at discussing our political differences with other people, especially in today’s climate of constant media consumption and political theater. And yet the Catholic Church insists that all Christians must do their part to work for justice, even in the smallest ways.

• Where does your daily life and labor intersect with the Church’s struggle for a just world? Are there small (or big!) ways in which you can stand with the poor and the vulnerable among us? Take a final minute to ask the Lord to reveal any such opportunities in your life.