Charity. Forgiveness. Love. Mercy. Peace. Here is the heart of the Gospel, the core of the classic Christian message. Should we, then, find someone today who models these ineffable virtues and seek to elect him, or her, to the presidency? Should a person of such transcendent noble character serve as a diplomat, a military leader, a police officer? What does it say of us if we hesitate in approving such a proposal?
The law of love is the chief teaching of Our Lord and of his holy Church (Mark 12:30-31). There is, however, a complementary warning or admonition which we see throughout the Bible—and throughout history. It, too, is a central and traditional Christian teaching, telling us about concupiscence, the human tendency toward evil. Representative pericopes would include Jeremiah’s lamentation about our moral sickness (17:9), Our Lord’s description of the evil in our hearts (Mk 7:21-23, John 2:25), and St. Paul’s repeated caution to us about attraction to evil (Romans 7:14-20, Galatians 5:17, and Ephesians 2:3, among many others).