All politics is local, the saying goes. But let’s hope politicians–and we who elect them– go beyond local interests and ourselves. The Second Vatican Council says it well:

“Christians should co-operate, willingly and wholeheartedly, in building an international order based on genuine respect for legitimate freedom and on a brotherhood of universal friendship. This is all the more urgent because the greater part of the world still experiences such poverty that in the voices of the poor Christ himself can be heard, crying out for charity from his followers.

There are nations, many of them with a Christian majority, which enjoy an abundance of goods, while others are deprived of the necessities of life, and suffer from hunger, disease and all kinds of afflictions. This scandal must be removed from the human family, for the glory of Christ’s Church and its testimony to the world are the spirit of poverty and the spirit of love.”

Beautiful image in that quote–the poor are the “voices of the poor Christ’.” Unfortunately, politicians –and those who elect them (us)– only hear their own voices and interests.  Politicians should listen to voices seldom heard, and so should we.