In his first Papal Exhortation, Pope Francis criticized “trickle down” economics. Some conservative pundits reacted rather harshly to the Pope’s choice of words. They wrongly took the comments as a unilateral condemnation of everything freemarket economists have ever proclaimed about the positive effects of supply side economics.

It wasn’t.

Meanwhile, progressive pundits seemed ebullient, mistaking the Pope’s comments to be an endorsement of the liberal alternative economic view to capitalism.

It wasn’t.

Pope Francis has spent a good part of his life battling leftist regimes of South America. Like Pope John Paul II before him, Francis is well aware of the dangers of centrally controlled economies. Those who seek to control both political and economic power historically oppose the greater cause of human freedom, and as such, the mission of the Catholic Church. John Paul II warned against the threat arising from a convergence of capitalism and communism.

Similarly, Pope Francis’ exhortation was not meant to be a study in comparative economics, but rather a reminder of the inadequacy of economic theory when compared to the immediacy of the words of Christ Himself.

In Matthew 25:40, Christ says, “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.”

With these simple words, He highlights the dangers of blind faith in mere economic convention to resolve the inequities of His time, many of which remain to this day.

In an age where there is little daylight between Washington and Wall Street, where hedge funds with political connections significantly outperform those with none; where the Federal Reserve has pumped trillions into Wall Street, scant little of which finds its way out, Pope Francis encourages a new and healthy skepticism in the current incarnation of American trickle down economics.

Modern American economics seems less the stuff of the 1980sera theory often associated with Ronald Reagan, and more the sort of corporatism foretold by Pope John Paul II, in which the corridors of government, corporations and finance are barely distinguishable from one another.

Pope Francis rightly reminds the faithful that economic views should not eclipse Christ’s most basic teachings regarding the poor. No financial model resolves human suffering as holistically and with the immediacy intended by Christ. To place a greater faith in financial models or political beliefs than in God is to commit a form of idolatry. A free-market approach to address the evils of poverty is related to economics similarly to Winston Churchill’s description of the relationship between democracy and government: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried.”

Free markets are not perfect, nor do they operate in real time. We should never replace our faith in God’s plan with a construct of man, but the historical evidence is clear. Free-market economies have been better than any alternatives at providing the freedom and dignity, as intended by God.

Conservatives should take particular notice. Progressive pundits like to make an effective appeal to our shared desire to end human suffering, often posing as religious in nature, with an ability to usher in a utopia of peace and social justice. In response, conservatives cannot simply recite obscure economic theories that fail to touch our hearts and inspire goodness.

As Whittaker Chambers, the former communist turned conservative, once observed, “If the Republican Party cannot get some grip of the actual world we live in, and from it generalize and actively promote a program that means something to the masses of people, then somebody else will.”

It is sometimes hard to reconcile our faith and politics, or in this case, economics. It seems too many people are more passionate about politics than their faith. It is especially difficult when we come face to face with poverty, illness and hopelessness in our towns and among our family and friends. Such encounters should help us realize that all economic or political theory is finite, and that policy and theory will never replace that which is inscribed upon our hearts. Yet we, on both sides, tend to speak of men and women we’ve entrusted with power as somehow being infinite in their ability to bring about change.

That would be a mistake. We should rightfully look to something greater. This time of year, we should pause to reconsider the relevancy of Pope Francis’ message. Economic theories are finite, but the capacity of love, and the meaning of the Christmas season, is indeed infinite.

DEAN SCONTRAS was the Republican candidate in Maine’s First Congressional District in 2008 and 2010.