In choosing our leaders and public officials

WHAT criteria to use in choosing our leaders and public officials? Definitely, we should hold integrity and competence as indispensable requirements. We need to look into the background of each candidate for public office whether these criteria are met. 

 Integrity ensures ethical decision-making, transparency and accountability that can foster public trust. It makes a leader consistently following through on his commitments and promises. It safeguards the well-being and interests of others, approaching them with empathy and understanding. 

 Competence requires the leaders and public officials to have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to perform their job effectively. It enables them to navigate complex challenges that are sprouting especially these days. 

 There should be a process of leadership development that highlights these two requirements since leadership plays a crucial role in organizational growth. Such development programs should enhance the skills and knowledge of leaders and public officials. 

 We really should know how to assess the integrity and competence of any candidate seeking public office. Of course, to be realistic, we have to put these qualities also in the context of the candidates’ popularity and electability. But for Pete’s sake, let’s not make mere popularity the main guide in electing our officials. 

 We have to go beyond looks, pr gimmicks, smart sound bites, spins and vote-getting machineries. Sad to say, we cannot help but observe how local candidates tend to congregate around national candidates and political parties with vast and deep war chest. They are there more for the “fund” of it. 

 Neither should we go by mere genealogy and pedigree—that one is the son or daughter of so-and-so, or that his father or mother died in some dramatic circumstances. This is a dangerous way to elect officials. It’s like impulse buying that leaves many of us with the buyer’s remorse. 

 Neither still should we be guided by some forms of kinship—blood, political, cultural, social, geographical. While these factors and conditions have their valid values, they can only play a secondary role. They should never be the primary criteria. Of course, a big no-no is choosing candidates on the basis of who give us more money, dole-outs and other forms of perks. This way can only spell disaster. 

 We should not even be guided solely by the candidates’ fame or their mass appeal, though that would already be a big help. We have to be wary of image-building tactics that do not necessarily show the true character of the candidates. 

 We should not be naïve as not to consider the many subtle forms of propaganda that sway people’s favor unfairly. We have to discern whether that mass appeal that candidates may have, spring truly from some divine or humanly legitimate charisma, or it is simply a product of some witchery. 

 What we should look into in vetting the candidates is their track record, their performance in public service, their achievements and their mistakes and how they handled those. Integrity and competence should always go together. 

Integrity without competence would not give us good governance. Neither competence without integrity. They are supposed to have a mutual relationship. 

 With respect to integrity, we have to be clear that its ultimate foundation source and goal is none other than God, our Creator and Father. Hence, we have to understand that the pursuit of integrity cannot be done outside of this original religious context. Any understanding of integrity outside of this would be compromised right from the start. 

 With integrity properly developed, the pursuit of competence would be facilitated and also properly exercised.

Christian concern for the lost

TO be like Christ, as we should, we have to develop an abiding compassion toward everyone, especially the lost ones. We are reminded of this Christian duty in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. (cfr. Lk 15,1-10) Compassion should have a universal coverage, not limited only to some sentimental aspects of things, nor simply to relieving the economic and material needs of the people. 

 The material needs of man may be pressing and urgent, but these should not detract us from giving priority attention to the precious spiritual needs of man to relate himself with God and others in true love, irrespective of whether he is rich or poor, a prince or a pauper. 

 It’s true that looking after the pressing material needs of people can already be an overwhelming task. This should not be attended to on an ad hoc basis alone, giving dole-outs and temporary relief. This has to be given stable and effective solutions, like creating jobs, enabling poor people to find work through education and continuing training, especially considering that the world economy is rapidly evolving, etc. 

 But over and above this concern is the care of the more important necessity of man—his spiritual life, his relation with God that should be developed according to God’s love and concern for everyone, and thus, his relation with everybody else. Christ himself gave more importance to forgiving sins than to curing the paralytic. (cfr Mk 2,1-12) 

 In this concern, we have to understand that the poor may not be the one who are economically poor. They can be the richest, the most educated, the most famous and powerful, but who happen to be farthest from God. They can turn out, in that context, to be the poorest of the poor, the lost sheep that have strayed farthest from God. 

 They pose as the most difficult challenge in our duty to show compassion, to reflect in our life God’s love for all. Are we in the first place aware of this reality? Are we up to the challenge? Do we know how to tackle this problem? 

 And so, we just have to learn how to fraternize with sinners with the view of helping them return to God. That’s what Christ did, even to the extent of ruffling the sentiments of some people who considered themselves to be without sin. For example, he chose Matthew, a tax-collector, another name for big sinners at that time, as one of the apostles. He dined with Zaccheus, another rich man regarded also as a sinner at that time. 

 Fraternizing with sinners is what we all have to cultivate in ourselves also. We have to replicate Christ’s attitude towards sinners, who actually are all of us—of course, in varying degrees. We have to give special attention to the lost sheep and to the lost coin. We have to open all possible avenues to be in touch with all sinners. 

 This capacity to fraternize with sinners is first of all a gift from God which we have to take care of and develop. It’s meant to mature us and to involve us in the continuing work of redemption of Christ. It’s not meant, of course, to dilute the teachings of Christ and the very essence of goodness and true holiness. 

 We need to train ourselves in this department because we obviously have to contend with tremendous difficulties that we have to learn to surmount. We will always have our biases and preferences and other natural and human conditionings that, if not handled well, can be divisive elements in our life.

Bent on pursuing heaven

WE should not be surprised if Christ used what we may consider as harsh words to make us follow him. With all our weaknesses and limitations, there is no way but for him to use these strong words to keep us on the right track and not to get lost in our earthly journey toward heaven, our ultimate goal. 

 This was expressed, for example, in that gospel episode where he told the crowd: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14,26) 

 These words simply mean that we need to have a certain detachment from persons and things to be able to give our heart entirely to God, and with him, we actually have everything we need. As St. Teresa of Avila put it graphically, with God we have enough—“solo Dios basta.” 

 So, the detachment our Lord is asking of us actually does not mean that we hate our life, our parents and others, and the things of this world. Rather it is a detachment that asks of us to have rectitude of intention, that everything that we do be for the glory of God. 

 St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians said as much: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (10,31) 

 We should not be afraid to detach ourselves from persons and things because such detachment is proper to us. It’s a prerequisite to be able to follow Christ closely, as we all should. 

 To be sure, such detachment does not compromise our proper attachment to the same persons and things. Rather it would enhance our relation with them, since it would be a relation that reflects God’s love for everyone and everything. Such detachment would facilitate our pursuit for the ultimate goal meant for us—to be with God in heaven. 

 For this end, we also need to make effective plans and strategies. This was also expressed in that gospel episode when Christ talked about a person who would make plans to build a tower. (cfr. Lk 14,28) 

 Making plans and strategies may require some time and effort, but it’s an investment that is all worth it. The little time and effort required can actually multiply our time and make our efforts more productive at the end of the day. It’s like the little rudder that St. James talked about in his letter. (cfr. 3,4) Our plans and strategies can have the power to accomplish great things, like a rudder giving direction to a big boat. 

 In these complicated times of ours with so many issues, problems and challenges spewing out, the need for plans and strategies have become more indispensable so that we can study them better and know exactly what to do with them. The way things are now, these issues, problems and challenges really need to be studied well, making due consultations when necessary. 

 What can help in this regard is to cultivate the practice of making daily examinations of conscience so we can make a review of what happened during the day and come up with the appropriate plan and strategies for the following day. 

 Since these examinations of conscience are usually done at the end of the day when we most likely would already be tired and exhausted, we really would need to motivate ourselves to give due attention to this practice. That little investment of effort and sacrifice will surely give back a tremendous return.