THE topic may sound purely intellectual and academic. But I feel it has an immediate and concrete relevance to our life, because it involves something fundamental about ourselves.
How we think and work, how we conduct our business and politics, for example, how we choose our priorities in daily life, etc. are determined by how we resolve the issue involved. It certainly has far-reaching effects.
And though the issue may first be tackled by our intelligentsia, it is not their exclusive concern only. It’s a universal concern! We have a duty, depending on our possibilities, to spread this concern to all. We just have to find the appropriate ways and means.
Reason or our intelligence, our capacity to know, our faculty to think is not just about a highly personal operation that we do, implying a world that we mainly invent, and thus, very subjective. That is, opposed to being objective or real.
This, sadly, is the dominant understanding of this powerful faculty. Detached from an objective law and standard, it becomes vulnerable to our self-seeking motives.
This spiritual power of ours to think and reason out has its proper object and its proper laws that need to be respected and followed. The problem we are having is that these things are neglected more often these days.
The Pope again alerted us about this point in his recent speech to university professors in a conference about the university’s role in the search for a new humanism in Europe.
It’s an ongoing affair, this effort to understand the mystery of man. The problem arises when the definition of man is confined to certain aspects only, and elaborated to their absurd conclusions.
Through history, several attempts have been made to define man. Some have viewed man mainly if not purely on his material and temporal aspects. The spiritual aspects are marginalized. The Pope himself practically says so.
“The crisis of modernity,” he said, “has less to do with modernity’s insistence on the centrality of man and his concerns, than with the problems raised by a humanism that claims to build a ‘kingdom of man’ detached from its necessary ontological foundation.”
That’s high talk, all right. But that reference to “necessary ontological foundation” is about man’s ultimate origin as God’s creature, made a person and not just a thing, with body and soul, and finally as God’s child meant to participate in the very life of God.
The core problem is when man’s reason is misused, and then abused, as when it is made to focus only on tangible or empirical objects, or on what is reasonable alone. Our reason is held captive by a vicious human attitude that ignores the spiritual and supernatural reality.
Beyond the empirical, reason is made to stop working, which is contrary to
its very nature, oriented as it is to the infinite and always in the state of transcending itself. Our intelligence does not know how to say, “enough.”
Thus, the Pope proposed that we broaden the scope of reason “in order to be able to explore and embrace those aspects of reality which go beyond the purely empirical.”
It’s when this is done, he said, that we can have a “more fruitful, complementary approach to the relationship between faith and reason.” A continuing dialogue between faith and reason takes place. This is a concern we have to learn to be more aware of. We have to sustain that dialogue always.
Our reasoning is led to the world of faith, and faith becomes partly reasonable, and definitely not just a myth, a figment of one’s imagination. Faith assumes a realism based on an objective truth.
It is with this attitude to reason and faith that Christianity’s contribution to modern humanism can be appreciated. Faith is then clothed in reason and can be deepened and presented in ways attuned to modernity’s sensibilities.
This is how we can be transformed spiritually so we can live out our vocation as children of God in the middle of the world. For a humanism without faith is a truncated humanism.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Business ethics
I AM happy to note that an increasing number of businessmen are becoming more receptive to the idea that they have to raise their knowledge of business ethics.
This is evidenced by the fact that more businessmen are enrolling in business ethics, a subject now offered in more and more schools. This is a welcome development that should be monitored closely and improved further.
That businessmen behave like dogs, acting only at the smell of fast money,
is hopefully becoming history, a thing of the past. With how things are now, such mentality is certainly a painful anachronism fit to be buried quickly.
Yes, our technological advances, on the one hand, with their corresponding
improvement in quality of life and sensitiveness, and the still gaping problems of poverty and inequality, on the other hand, practically require every businessman to master business ethics.
Business is a very complicated human activity that involves not only an exchange of goods and money but also the very dignity of human person. It just cannot be resorted to simply because one has money or the opportunity. A lot more is needed.
Business by nature touches us to the core, as well as covers our farthest social dimension. Always a moral act, it is crucial to attain not only our temporal common good but also our eternal common good.
In short, business cannot detach its economic dimension from the concern
for social justice, ecological balance, the principles of common good, solidarity and subsidiarity, and a lot more.
The gains of globalization, for example, would just be Pyrrhic victory if it fails to achieve greater justice and equality worldwide, and if it takes undue advantage of the weaknesses of poor countries. Globalization should have a heart and a soul.
Business should always uphold the basic “gospel of work,” where human labor is seen as a blessing not a curse, where the proper priority of labor over capital, spiritual life and family over work, etc., is kept.
It should foster proper values, arming itself against anomalies to which it is most vulnerable: commercialism, materialism, forms of cheating and corruption, false belief that human development is only a matter of economic progress.
The proper value of sacrifice should also be inculcated, since any ethical business activity would always involve self-denials and sacrifices. We have to understand that business always entails some amount of ascetical struggle and development of virtues.
Business cannot be separated from religion. It has to be seamlessly integrated to our relation with God and others, ultimately marked by charity. It just cannot be the arena for self-interest or even greed to play out their games.
This is an ongoing challenge because our present mindset is still barbarian, stuck only with the economic aspect. A continuing formation is needed and must put in place the necessary mechanisms to help businessmen
Clear guidelines and benchmarks should be made to warn us of what may already be laxity or complacency if not outright violation to business ethics.
More than that, these should help us to develop a sense of duty and responsibility in business. There’s a need to broaden businessmen’s mentality to be specially sensitive to ethical considerations.
Our present fascination for breeding entrepreneurs among ourselves should
not forget this need to develop a certain sensitivity to business ethics. Our entrepreneurial skills would be hollow without the leaven of ethics.
Though entrepreneurial activities thrive best in a fast-moving business environment, it does not mean that they are exempted from ethical questions. The more immersed people are in entrepreneurial activities, the more grounded in ethics they should be.
I pray that we can immediately explode fallacies that blame business ethics
for unnecessary difficulties and failures in business.
It is strongly hoped that the schools and churches, the families, government agencies and other institutions work together to effect a revolution, a thorough overhaul, a paradigm shift in the way we do business.
We have to build an authentic culture of business ethics, to both reflect and reinforce who we really are, that is, that we are children of God
This is evidenced by the fact that more businessmen are enrolling in business ethics, a subject now offered in more and more schools. This is a welcome development that should be monitored closely and improved further.
That businessmen behave like dogs, acting only at the smell of fast money,
is hopefully becoming history, a thing of the past. With how things are now, such mentality is certainly a painful anachronism fit to be buried quickly.
Yes, our technological advances, on the one hand, with their corresponding
improvement in quality of life and sensitiveness, and the still gaping problems of poverty and inequality, on the other hand, practically require every businessman to master business ethics.
Business is a very complicated human activity that involves not only an exchange of goods and money but also the very dignity of human person. It just cannot be resorted to simply because one has money or the opportunity. A lot more is needed.
Business by nature touches us to the core, as well as covers our farthest social dimension. Always a moral act, it is crucial to attain not only our temporal common good but also our eternal common good.
In short, business cannot detach its economic dimension from the concern
for social justice, ecological balance, the principles of common good, solidarity and subsidiarity, and a lot more.
The gains of globalization, for example, would just be Pyrrhic victory if it fails to achieve greater justice and equality worldwide, and if it takes undue advantage of the weaknesses of poor countries. Globalization should have a heart and a soul.
Business should always uphold the basic “gospel of work,” where human labor is seen as a blessing not a curse, where the proper priority of labor over capital, spiritual life and family over work, etc., is kept.
It should foster proper values, arming itself against anomalies to which it is most vulnerable: commercialism, materialism, forms of cheating and corruption, false belief that human development is only a matter of economic progress.
The proper value of sacrifice should also be inculcated, since any ethical business activity would always involve self-denials and sacrifices. We have to understand that business always entails some amount of ascetical struggle and development of virtues.
Business cannot be separated from religion. It has to be seamlessly integrated to our relation with God and others, ultimately marked by charity. It just cannot be the arena for self-interest or even greed to play out their games.
This is an ongoing challenge because our present mindset is still barbarian, stuck only with the economic aspect. A continuing formation is needed and must put in place the necessary mechanisms to help businessmen
Clear guidelines and benchmarks should be made to warn us of what may already be laxity or complacency if not outright violation to business ethics.
More than that, these should help us to develop a sense of duty and responsibility in business. There’s a need to broaden businessmen’s mentality to be specially sensitive to ethical considerations.
Our present fascination for breeding entrepreneurs among ourselves should
not forget this need to develop a certain sensitivity to business ethics. Our entrepreneurial skills would be hollow without the leaven of ethics.
Though entrepreneurial activities thrive best in a fast-moving business environment, it does not mean that they are exempted from ethical questions. The more immersed people are in entrepreneurial activities, the more grounded in ethics they should be.
I pray that we can immediately explode fallacies that blame business ethics
for unnecessary difficulties and failures in business.
It is strongly hoped that the schools and churches, the families, government agencies and other institutions work together to effect a revolution, a thorough overhaul, a paradigm shift in the way we do business.
We have to build an authentic culture of business ethics, to both reflect and reinforce who we really are, that is, that we are children of God
Monday, July 2, 2007
Confession
THIS is about the sacrament, and its requisite virtue of penance. This is not about rumors and gossips of attention-hungry celebrities. Sad to say, the word appears to be more associated with the latter than with the former.
The sacrament and the virtue appear to be falling into oblivion. Aggravating this is the anomaly that while the number of penitents is dwindling, the number of communicants is increasing.
The situation should move all of us to drastic action. Priests should talk more about these topics to clarify and encourage people. Everybody else should really try to develop the appropriate knowledge, attitudes and habits.
Of course, priests should not only talk about them. Now, they have to give
a more overt example. They—we—have to the first to go to confession. We should also make ourselves more available for this sacrament.
One aspect of the problem is precisely the lack of priests or, worse, their unwillingness to administer this sacrament. Of course, that in itself is reflective of a still deeper problem that’s crying for urgent relief.
A priest should have a clear sense of priority, and realize that hearing confessions is one of his first priorities. He should hang out a lot in the confessional.
If he were to choose, for example, between being a parish office manager and a confessor, he should choose the latter, because the former can be well done by a layman, while as a confessor, he is unsubstitutable.
As a confessor and spiritual adviser, a priest is at once a father, judge, doctor and pastor. In Christ, he forgives sins, tells us what is wrong, heals us of our illnesses, and leads us to our true destination. He handles the most intimate part of a person.
We have to remember that the sacrament is such a precious treasure in Christian life that neglecting it constitutes a big, culpable waste!
The sacrament is nothing less than a tribunal of divine justice and mercy. Something in it makes us closest to God. That’s because mercy is God’s most radical form of love for us, and asking for mercy is our extremist form of love for God.
The Gospel speaks eloquently of this. Christ on the Cross, about to die, asked his Father to forgive “them for they know not what they do.” His whole redemptive work culminated in forgiving sinful mankind.
And the sinner of a woman who gate-crashed into Simon’s party for Jesus was considered as loving Jesus more than did Simon, because of her many sins for which she repented and asked for mercy. (Lk 7,36-48)
In short, God is happiest when we ask for forgiveness. “There shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who does need penance,” Jesus said. (Lk 15,7)
One reason we see a lot of religious indifference and even hostility nowadays not only against God but also against one another is the neglect of the sacrament of confession and its virtue of penance.
How can one feel close to God when he feels no contrition for his sin? This, of course, presumes that one still has some sense of sin, because in actuality many have reduced sin to what is only externally offensive, not necessarily to God.
Confession reconciles man with God, recovers lost grace or increases grace
if one still is in that state. It also builds up fraternity in the Church, since sin is not only an offense against God, but works to weaken Christ’s body, the Church.
Confession heals our individual conscience of its many defects, and makes it at once more sensitive to sin and resistant to temptation. It knocks the devil witless.
Confession even has very healthy natural, as in psychological, effects. If understood and done properly, it truly makes us feel light and happy, free and unburdened. It makes us simple yet knowledgeable, transparent yet prudent.
We should do everything to promote the habit of going to confession. The
same with its required virtue of penance, the abiding sense of our sinfulness leading us to always ask for forgiveness.
The sacrament and the virtue appear to be falling into oblivion. Aggravating this is the anomaly that while the number of penitents is dwindling, the number of communicants is increasing.
The situation should move all of us to drastic action. Priests should talk more about these topics to clarify and encourage people. Everybody else should really try to develop the appropriate knowledge, attitudes and habits.
Of course, priests should not only talk about them. Now, they have to give
a more overt example. They—we—have to the first to go to confession. We should also make ourselves more available for this sacrament.
One aspect of the problem is precisely the lack of priests or, worse, their unwillingness to administer this sacrament. Of course, that in itself is reflective of a still deeper problem that’s crying for urgent relief.
A priest should have a clear sense of priority, and realize that hearing confessions is one of his first priorities. He should hang out a lot in the confessional.
If he were to choose, for example, between being a parish office manager and a confessor, he should choose the latter, because the former can be well done by a layman, while as a confessor, he is unsubstitutable.
As a confessor and spiritual adviser, a priest is at once a father, judge, doctor and pastor. In Christ, he forgives sins, tells us what is wrong, heals us of our illnesses, and leads us to our true destination. He handles the most intimate part of a person.
We have to remember that the sacrament is such a precious treasure in Christian life that neglecting it constitutes a big, culpable waste!
The sacrament is nothing less than a tribunal of divine justice and mercy. Something in it makes us closest to God. That’s because mercy is God’s most radical form of love for us, and asking for mercy is our extremist form of love for God.
The Gospel speaks eloquently of this. Christ on the Cross, about to die, asked his Father to forgive “them for they know not what they do.” His whole redemptive work culminated in forgiving sinful mankind.
And the sinner of a woman who gate-crashed into Simon’s party for Jesus was considered as loving Jesus more than did Simon, because of her many sins for which she repented and asked for mercy. (Lk 7,36-48)
In short, God is happiest when we ask for forgiveness. “There shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who does need penance,” Jesus said. (Lk 15,7)
One reason we see a lot of religious indifference and even hostility nowadays not only against God but also against one another is the neglect of the sacrament of confession and its virtue of penance.
How can one feel close to God when he feels no contrition for his sin? This, of course, presumes that one still has some sense of sin, because in actuality many have reduced sin to what is only externally offensive, not necessarily to God.
Confession reconciles man with God, recovers lost grace or increases grace
if one still is in that state. It also builds up fraternity in the Church, since sin is not only an offense against God, but works to weaken Christ’s body, the Church.
Confession heals our individual conscience of its many defects, and makes it at once more sensitive to sin and resistant to temptation. It knocks the devil witless.
Confession even has very healthy natural, as in psychological, effects. If understood and done properly, it truly makes us feel light and happy, free and unburdened. It makes us simple yet knowledgeable, transparent yet prudent.
We should do everything to promote the habit of going to confession. The
same with its required virtue of penance, the abiding sense of our sinfulness leading us to always ask for forgiveness.
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