God has a plan for each one of us, and the call to politics is given to those who are gifted with special qualities of analysis, service delivery in urban development, finances, health, and education. Nothing is worse than someone following a path that is not their call. It not only does harm to the one following the wrong path but unfortunately, harm to countless others. Politicians need our daily prayer because their scope of responsibility is vast! Blessed are they who truly desire and work for the common good, and may our prayer also help those who are on the wrong path to find their way for the sake of their happiness and the well-being of others.
The Salesian Sisters have a brand of politics that I’m sure no one will counter. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Is there such a thing?” Yes! We have a political view that few can argue with. You will want to read the Rector Major’s Strenna of this year to know what kind of politics we support.
Did you know that St. John Bosco was political and had a lot to say about politics? He defined politics as the art and science of governing the State well. Don Bosco’s politics was “. . . to keep order, calm and peace in society. This is our politics.” “If there is someone who creates obstacles for us we need to say that they either don’t know us or they don’t know what is being done.” This is an excerpt from a talk he gave to a group of past pupils who came to celebrate his feast day. You can read the address he gave to his boys in this year’s Strenna.
Fr. Angel, our Rector Major, concludes the Strenna by saying: “Let us ask God the Father to grant us his Spirit so that we may continue to carry out the real politics of the Our Father for the young people of today, in a society that is calling out to us in the face of so much inequality not to remain silent or passive, and in a world always in need of God that we might evermore become Witnesses-Disciples-Missionaries of the God who while scrupulously respecting human freedom is every day ready for the Encounter with his sons and daughters.” Amen.
