DOING business can be a test of love. It actually is. Remember that
parable about a nobleman who went off to a distant country to obtain
the kingship for himself and then return? (cfr Lk 19,11-28)
He first called his 10 servants and gave them a gold coin each,
instructing them to trade with it until he returns. The first earned
10 more with the coin given to him. Another earned 5 more. But a third
one simply returned the coin without any earning.
The nobleman was very happy with the first two servants and rewarded
them very generously. But he was mad at the third one. “Why did you
not put my money in a bank,” he asked. “Then on my return I would have
collected it with interest.”
The parable can have many interpretations and applications, but one
lesson we can derive from it is that we have to make use of everything
God has given us: our life, our intelligence and freedom, our rights
and duties, our capacity to work, our talents, charisms and other
natural endowments.
And we have to make use of them as fully as possible, exhausting their
potentials to the furthest extent possible, but doing this always in
accordance to God’s will and designs, and not just ours.
And so, away with idleness, laziness, wasting time, or pursuing
business purely on our own terms, with profit and other forms of
self-interest as the driving force and God’s plans largely if not
completely ignored.
The third servant also had reason why he just kept the coin without
trading with it. “I was afraid of you,” he told his master, “because
you are a demanding man. You take up what you did not lay down, and
you harvest what you did not plant.”
Like this third servant, we too will always have some excuses not to
do what God wants of us, and instead just do our own will. This has to
be avoided at all costs.
Of special interest to us now is the role of business in our life. For
many, business is just a human affair, pursued for completely human
purposes that actually also have their good side.
We have to make sure that this human activity, so important and
common, is done with the proper intentions and means.
Business is indispensable in any society. It generates money,
employment, services, progress and development. It fosters creativity
and productivity as it incites entrepreneurial spirit among people. It
gives able support to our other concerns—even in our intellectual and
spiritual concerns.
It definitely deserves to be promoted and defended. But it has to be
done as an expression of love of God and others. It just cannot be
reduced to a purely economic or technocratic activity. Rather its
technical requirements and goals should be met and pursued as a
function of love of God and others.
Because it is done out of love of God and others, we have to learn to
view business as a form of prayer and offering to God. We have to
learn to do business such that it becomes a living instrument of God’s
abiding providence over us. We need to infuse theology into our
business, our faith and charity inspiring our numbers and
calculations.
It is this love of God and others that purifies the profit motive of
business and enlarges it to serve the common good and not just a
private interest. It is what considers the welfare of everyone, and
pursues to build a culture of social justice.
It is this love of God and others that leads the players and agents to
think of initiative, strategies and put up entities that fulfill the
real needs of the people, seeing to it that these enjoy a certain
stability and consistency so they can serve the people for as long as
needed.
It is this love of God and others that encourages an increasingly
participative character of business so as to effect greater solidarity
in the pursuit of the common good. It discourages elitist or
exclusivistic attitudes, as well as monopolies and other unfair and
subtle forms of exploitation.
It is this love of God and others that shows a certain special
sensitivity for the weak and disadvantaged. It puts life into the much
vaunted Church slogan of preferential option for the poor. It also
does business that is respectful of the ecology.
We need to examine ourselves regularly, from the personal level up to
the global, to see if our business would pass the test of love.
parable about a nobleman who went off to a distant country to obtain
the kingship for himself and then return? (cfr Lk 19,11-28)
He first called his 10 servants and gave them a gold coin each,
instructing them to trade with it until he returns. The first earned
10 more with the coin given to him. Another earned 5 more. But a third
one simply returned the coin without any earning.
The nobleman was very happy with the first two servants and rewarded
them very generously. But he was mad at the third one. “Why did you
not put my money in a bank,” he asked. “Then on my return I would have
collected it with interest.”
The parable can have many interpretations and applications, but one
lesson we can derive from it is that we have to make use of everything
God has given us: our life, our intelligence and freedom, our rights
and duties, our capacity to work, our talents, charisms and other
natural endowments.
And we have to make use of them as fully as possible, exhausting their
potentials to the furthest extent possible, but doing this always in
accordance to God’s will and designs, and not just ours.
And so, away with idleness, laziness, wasting time, or pursuing
business purely on our own terms, with profit and other forms of
self-interest as the driving force and God’s plans largely if not
completely ignored.
The third servant also had reason why he just kept the coin without
trading with it. “I was afraid of you,” he told his master, “because
you are a demanding man. You take up what you did not lay down, and
you harvest what you did not plant.”
Like this third servant, we too will always have some excuses not to
do what God wants of us, and instead just do our own will. This has to
be avoided at all costs.
Of special interest to us now is the role of business in our life. For
many, business is just a human affair, pursued for completely human
purposes that actually also have their good side.
We have to make sure that this human activity, so important and
common, is done with the proper intentions and means.
Business is indispensable in any society. It generates money,
employment, services, progress and development. It fosters creativity
and productivity as it incites entrepreneurial spirit among people. It
gives able support to our other concerns—even in our intellectual and
spiritual concerns.
It definitely deserves to be promoted and defended. But it has to be
done as an expression of love of God and others. It just cannot be
reduced to a purely economic or technocratic activity. Rather its
technical requirements and goals should be met and pursued as a
function of love of God and others.
Because it is done out of love of God and others, we have to learn to
view business as a form of prayer and offering to God. We have to
learn to do business such that it becomes a living instrument of God’s
abiding providence over us. We need to infuse theology into our
business, our faith and charity inspiring our numbers and
calculations.
It is this love of God and others that purifies the profit motive of
business and enlarges it to serve the common good and not just a
private interest. It is what considers the welfare of everyone, and
pursues to build a culture of social justice.
It is this love of God and others that leads the players and agents to
think of initiative, strategies and put up entities that fulfill the
real needs of the people, seeing to it that these enjoy a certain
stability and consistency so they can serve the people for as long as
needed.
It is this love of God and others that encourages an increasingly
participative character of business so as to effect greater solidarity
in the pursuit of the common good. It discourages elitist or
exclusivistic attitudes, as well as monopolies and other unfair and
subtle forms of exploitation.
It is this love of God and others that shows a certain special
sensitivity for the weak and disadvantaged. It puts life into the much
vaunted Church slogan of preferential option for the poor. It also
does business that is respectful of the ecology.
We need to examine ourselves regularly, from the personal level up to
the global, to see if our business would pass the test of love.
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