To find a different way

By Fr Kwesi Alleyne

A member of the Maloney Parish Clergy Team

Yet another principle is the Universal Destination of All Goods. Everything that God has created is meant for everybody. Private property is licit and provides for the legitimate needs of individuals, families, and groups of people.

This, however, is not an absolute and must be measured by the principle that reminds us that vast inequalities within and among nations is a state of affairs contrary to justice and which begs for just resolution.

It calls on individuals, families, and nations to reflect on their excess and to question themselves as to who can receive, not just benefit from it. This is what the Social Doctrine of the Church describes as the “social mortgage” on one’s excess wealth.

Subsidiarity is another principle in which one’s morals must be grounded. In simple terms what this expresses is that “the little people have a space and a say too”.

The village councils, cricket, football, basketball, and netball leagues, Scouts, Girl Guides, and myriad other small instances of civil engagement that gave our communities life and engendered values are examples of this principle at work. The politician’s role is to facilitate such spaces of creativity and growth. One must be able to allow persons their domain to be and to operate.

Closely linked to this is the universal principle of Participation. This is the principle upon which democracy should be firmly grounded, allowing persons to share in the life of the community as well as the tangible and intangible fruits that proceed from life forged together.

What happens when persons find themselves on the margins of the community and feel excluded from its goods? They try to claim their piece, what may be a just right. Many social ills stem from the multifaceted dynamic of exclusion in our world today.

Solidarity is yet another principle. Archbishop Edward Gilbert CSsR wrote a document on solidarity that we should probably revisit.

What does solidarity say? It affirms that every human being is my brother and sister and that I am willing to stand with you in your difficulty and walk with you towards wholeness.

This points to the principle of Integral Human Development which calls us to move as individuals and as societies from less humane ways of living to more humane ways of living.

We are meant together to move society forward in that direction. The ultimate goal of such development is holiness, which is nothing short of becoming the best version of myself in God.

The political leader is called to help create conditions in which people are freed from and surpass conditions that limit and deform their humanity. They can attend to the life of the spirit and touch the glory and beauty of their humanity in God. This is Epiphany. This is Manifestation.

What the Wise Men teach us is humility on the journey. They persevere in seeking out and following the light, allowing themselves to be led by a different way.

Trinidad and Tobago needs to find a different way. We would do well to allow these principles to be for us a light. In our search, God will show us how we are called to advance God’s project in the spaces of darkness we are called to live in.

What the gospel text (Mt 2:1–12) tells us is that the project of God will always be victorious. The power of the Herods of the world is based on fear. It is threatened by the power of the little ones.

Despite its violence and deception, it cannot extinguish the light. We are invited not to be moved by fear but from a profound sense of God’s being active in our world and the blessing of cooperating with God for good.

When we yield to the temptation to separate politics from morals, we prevent such principles from coming to bear on society. When we engrave universal principles on our hearts, allowing them to inform our actions in the public sphere, morality becomes flesh in the realm of politics.