The 4-day work week plan

IF this plan gets approved and implemented, I hope that we

use it to be more productive and fruitful and not just to spend more

time doing hardly anything. The shortening of the work week is

intended for us to give time to other important duties we have.

  

            One of them is the time we have to spend with our family.

How important it is to spend quality time with the children and other

members of the family since that would somehow redound to the benefit

of the individual persons involved and of society in general!

  

            A strong, healthy family practically determines the

vitality of our society. A dysfunctional family leads to a

dysfunctional society. We need to do everything to make family life

vibrant, a continuing source of constructive and edifying energies for

the society.

  

            Let’s be quick to identify areas in family life that still

need to be improved. There may even be problems there that need to be

resolved. We should try to be concrete and specific in this so that we

don’t waste time in doing what ought to be done.

              Another set of responsibilities that we have to give

attention to is that of our continuing formation and training.

Especially these days when the character of the professional work is

fast changing due to the rapid developments taking place, we need to

see to it that we continue in our studies and training to be able to

cope with the changes and the new challenges and opportunities.

  

            We are told that our formation actually never ends. There

is always something new to learn. And we should dedicate some time for

this purpose. In this regard, it is not really so much of getting as

much information and training as of focusing on the area where our

talents and potentials can be optimized.

  

            But obviously, we need to be more broad-minded and

culturally open and tolerant, and so we need to get exposed to other

areas that may not be where we would be directly involved in. We

should avoid getting siloed in a particular area or system. We should

try our best to be as compatible as possible with all other systems.

   

            But the most important area where we should pay attention

to is our continuing spiritual and moral formation. This is like the

computer’s operating system that enables us to function in all the

other aspects of our life.

  

            We cannot overemphasize the importance of this area. The

aim is nothing less than to be “alter Christus, ipse Christus,”

another Christ, if not Christ himself. That’s because in Christ we

have everything we need to be able to handle all the situations,

predicaments, issues, challenges and opportunities in life. It is in

Christ where we have the means to get to our ultimate and eternal

destination.

  

            The more time we can have to pray and to go deeper into

the study of the doctrine of our faith, the development of the many

virtues, the recourse of the sacraments, and to indulge in more

devotional and pious acts, the better for us.

   

            We should welcome the 4-day work week plan if we use the

extra time forthese considerations we just made!