CATHOLICS SHOW THE WAY (OCT. 4, 2008)

THE fact that the date for this year’s general election, December 7, falls on a Sunday has generated various reactions from religious groups, particularly Christian denominations that worship on Sundays.
The beef of the Christian community is that being a Sunday, the voting day will interfere with their activities on the holy day of Sabbath, as the exercise is to run from 7.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
There is, however, another school of thought that Christians can still observe the solemnity associated with the day and still exercise their franchise in line with their obligations as responsible citizens desirous of participating in the decision-making process.
To that school, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Christians combining their spiritual obligations with the call to national duty like voting on election day.
Indeed, when Jesus Christ was confronted on this same dilemma of combining worship with personal obligations by the Pharisees, He retorted in Luke 20:25 thus, “Render ye unto Caesar things that are Caesar’s, and unto God things that are God’s.”
In a similar vein, He wondered in Matthew 12:11, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?”
Along this line, the Daily Graphic considers the move by the Catholic Church to hold mass in the evening of Saturday, December 6, instead of on December 7, as progressive and in accord with the teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
It is a step that could help dilute the dogmatic and fundamental approach with which some Christian faithful have often approached scripture and religion, making it look as if the Good Lord we all serve has not endowed us with the will to do what is appropriate and practical in trying circumstances in order to make life worth living for us on earth.
The same injunction applies in the temporal setting where we are quick to make reference to the fact that the law was made for man and not man for the law. Therefore, in any situation that we find ourselves, we must try to make adjustments so that we can make progress within the confines of the law and not allow the regulations to enslave us.
The Daily Graphic concedes that Sunday has a special place in the lives of all Christians, but granted that this is the case and all Christians must worship on Sunday, December 7, we share the concerns of the Catholic Bishops that “authentic democracy is possible only in a state ruled by law and not on the basis of a corrupt conception of the human person…. As Christian citizens, we ought to be concerned about the country’s stability and growth; we should seek to promote the common good and interest in all activities”.
It is our belief that the Catholic Church has set the tone for other Christian faiths to emulate so that all churches will find ways of observing their religious obligations during the weekend of the elections without compromising on the importance of the elections and their faith.