ECONOMIC ASPIRATIONS
Texts“The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.” (Luke 1:49-53)
“The original source of all that is good is the very act of God, who created both earth and man, and who gave the earth to man so that he might have dominion over it by his work and enjoy its fruits (Gen. 1:28). God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favoring anyone.” (CA 31) Exposition/Discussion The Church says that one of the greatest injustices of the contemporary world is in the area of economics. Because of the greed and selfishness of many individuals and institutions there is a great disparity in the ownership and use of the resources of the earth that are meant to satisfy the needs of all. There are individuals who possess extraordinary wealth while the many possess almost nothing. Those who possess much are relatively few compared to the greater majority who possess little (SRS 28). This economic imbalance is a serious concern of the Church. One outright violation of social justice is poverty. Among the poor, there is a sustained deprivation of goods and opportunities necessary for a dignified human life. There is a severe unequal distribution of goods and services that are meant for all. The rich enjoy great wealth and privileges while the poor struggle simply to survive. The importance of material goods in our life is obvious – no proof is needed to recognize our basic needs for food, shelter, and clothing. We naturally need material things for our survival, personal development, and social progress. However, the pursuit of material goods cannot be the center of our life. Neither can it be our highest priority for we need also to attend to our spiritual needs. The Church deals with socioeconomic issues because these issues are loaded with heavy moral implications. The Church calls the attentionof all Christians to the economic situation of their lives, to the way they freely behave regarding material things, because a great deal of economic injustice originates from such moral behavior. Thus, the Church proposes its moral socioeconomic teachings to improve the life of all. PCP II describes our society: “a great number of our people wallow in abject poverty and misery while tremendous social privileges and deference are accorded the rich and powerful” (312). The Council asserts that the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor is morally unacceptable, for it constitutes an offensive attack against human dignity and social justice. When we speak of the poor, we almost always mean those who suffer from economic impoverishment. This involves deprivation of even the basic of means to sustain life. This is the kind of poverty that is most prevalent in the Philippines. The poor have a great ability to survive. They know how to make do with the little that they have in order to get by. They are often neglected, overlooked and to a certain extent oppressed. POP is not optional; it is mandatory especially for Christians. It does not mean an exclusion of the rich. Love for the poor surely does not mean despising the rich. This commitment is preferential, not exclusive. The Church teaches that we must give more attention to the poor because, unlike the rich who have many advantages in life, the poor are deprived of so many things. POP is an option that can be chosen by both the rich and the poor. The rich are called to enter into the lives of the poor by reaching out in fraternal unity with them. This may require the rich to sacrifice some of their privileges and luxuries in favor of the less fortunate. The poor, on the other hand, are called to be in solidarity with other underprivileged people rather than neglect them, or worse, take advantage of them and unite with the rich and powerful. (example: the rich should give just wages to the poor; the poor should give an honest day’s work and create local structures which can help raise their quality of life) POP does not praise poverty. Poverty is dehumanizing. It runs contrary to the will of God whose glory is man fully alive. Rather, POP is a commitment to work against poverty. POP first appeared in the statement issued by Latin American Bishops during their meeting in Puebla Mexico in 1979 Three reasons for the immediate widespread of the phrase POP: predominant experience of poverty in Latin America, local church history of disinterest and even disdain for the poor, and its theological and biblical soundness. POP is a choice to commit oneself to opposing the injustice, exploitation, oppression, and marginalization of the least, last, and lonely members of our communities. Ways to adopt or practice POP in ones personal life: to be directly connected to the poor, Ask question and search for answers, Start to advocate, Work with the poor as they help themselves, Watch your money, and Give money. The practice of POP is primarily a very personal choice made by individual committed Christians. But this is not enough, Social justice demands the commitment of institutions and communities to exercise solidarity with the poor and cease from serving only the interests of the powerful. Characteristics of POP: It is scriptural, It has goal, It is multifaceted, It is a response to sin, and It is based on faith. The Church’s response to poverty is its proclaimed POP. An authentic preferential option must move us toward the poor, simply because they are the most in need. |
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Christian Viewpoint of Economic Goods
1. God has created and is creating all things in this world, and with their own laws order, and values. It follows that they are:
Basically good
Gifts of God
Instruments to holiness
2. When God created the world He ordered human beings to exercise dominion over all of His creation (Gen. 1:28). Human beings are to act as the stewards of God’s creation. This assigned responsibility of human beings can be understood as follows:
The right order of things proposed here states that since human beings are commanded to take charge of God’s creation, they are therefore, superior to these temporal goods. Their intrinsic human dignity is superior to these material things, no matter how valuable and wonderful these material things may be. Material things, therefore, should never be equal to human persons.
Though human persons are superior in dignity to material goods, they do not have absolute control over these material goods, for God is the sole Creator and the ultimate owner of everything.
We are to use the material goods according to the salvific plan of God. The riches of the earth are for human beings – to provide them with their needs, and free them from anything that might turn them away from the life of authentic happiness in God.
3. The Christian attitude toward material things is closely tied up with Christ’s mission of liberation, particularly from socioeconomic oppression. Jesus achieved these by teaching the following: The danger of riches. Mt. 4:11; Mt. 19:16-22; Mk. 8:36
A new hierarchy of values. Jesus clarifies our priorities in life and sets a new hierarchy of values that should ground just social structures. – Mt. 6:24; Acts 20:35; Lk. 14:12-14
4. Based on the Biblical understanding of the temporal goods, the Church has developed its socioeconomic teachings (principles) that are relevant in our present socioeconomic condition.
Right to private property. We deserve the right to own possessions. It is our human right, rooted in our nature as human persons who are born with dignity and called to live a decent and peaceful life in a community. But this right to private property entails a social dimension. It prohibits us from taking anything and doing anything we want with our property, without regard for others.
Universal destination of goods. The right to private property is subordinated to, yet derived from, the principle of universal destination of all goods. The way we legitimately exercise our ownership over our private property must recognize the social responsibility to use it for the common good, to meet the needs of others as well as one’s own because “God destined the earth and all its contents for all people so that all created things would be shared by all under the guidance of justice tempered with charity” (GS 69). Pope John Paul II said: “… the goods of this world are equally meant for all … Private property, in fact, is under a social mortgage” (SRS 42). If you ask anyone who had an experience of holding a mortgage on a house, you would understand what Pope John Paul II meant when he said that private property is under a social mortgage. Just as one cannot fully claim that he owns a house until the mortgage is completely paid off, we cannot really say that we are the final owners of our material possessions that come from God. As long as we are God’s creation, just like the rest of the world, our holding of our property is strictly conditioned by our social obligation to the rest of God’s creation. To view our material properties as under a “social mortgage” means to use them and the rest of God’s creation according to how God meant them to be used – for our good and the good of others.
Care for the environment. The earth belongs to God and we have no right to exploit or destroy it. We are but stewards of God’s creation, we are not the real owner. We are accountable to God as the Creator of the world and source of all good things. Thus, we must take care of our environment. We cannot use the natural resources as though they were inexhaustible.
5. Application of Church’s socioeconomic principles to the individual economic choices:
We must aim for objectives that are in accordance to integral human development. Economics is not the sole aspect of human development; or better still, economics involves both the physical and spiritual aspects of life. Seeing economics in the light of such holistic objectives means recognizing that business should not be run solely for material profit.
Simplicity of lifestyle in the procurement and use of economic goods. Simple living is by no means glorification of poverty. Rather, it is a life of freedom from excessive pursuit for material things. Clement of Alexandria helps us to think along this line when he asked, “Tell me, does a table knife refuse to cut if it is not studded with silver or have a handle of ivory? … What difference does it make if the wash basin be only of clay? Will it not hold water anyway to wash hands?” (Rush Finn, “Economic Order,” 314)
Simplicity helps us remember that we are not the absolute owner of what we possess, we are morally obliged to see our possessions relative to the conditions of other people, especially the poor, and it is only in the spirit of human solidarity and dependence on God that we can truly share the gifts that we possess. By remembering these, we can arrive at what we call economic justice.
Basically good
Gifts of God
Instruments to holiness
2. When God created the world He ordered human beings to exercise dominion over all of His creation (Gen. 1:28). Human beings are to act as the stewards of God’s creation. This assigned responsibility of human beings can be understood as follows:
The right order of things proposed here states that since human beings are commanded to take charge of God’s creation, they are therefore, superior to these temporal goods. Their intrinsic human dignity is superior to these material things, no matter how valuable and wonderful these material things may be. Material things, therefore, should never be equal to human persons.
Though human persons are superior in dignity to material goods, they do not have absolute control over these material goods, for God is the sole Creator and the ultimate owner of everything.
We are to use the material goods according to the salvific plan of God. The riches of the earth are for human beings – to provide them with their needs, and free them from anything that might turn them away from the life of authentic happiness in God.
3. The Christian attitude toward material things is closely tied up with Christ’s mission of liberation, particularly from socioeconomic oppression. Jesus achieved these by teaching the following: The danger of riches. Mt. 4:11; Mt. 19:16-22; Mk. 8:36
A new hierarchy of values. Jesus clarifies our priorities in life and sets a new hierarchy of values that should ground just social structures. – Mt. 6:24; Acts 20:35; Lk. 14:12-14
4. Based on the Biblical understanding of the temporal goods, the Church has developed its socioeconomic teachings (principles) that are relevant in our present socioeconomic condition.
Right to private property. We deserve the right to own possessions. It is our human right, rooted in our nature as human persons who are born with dignity and called to live a decent and peaceful life in a community. But this right to private property entails a social dimension. It prohibits us from taking anything and doing anything we want with our property, without regard for others.
Universal destination of goods. The right to private property is subordinated to, yet derived from, the principle of universal destination of all goods. The way we legitimately exercise our ownership over our private property must recognize the social responsibility to use it for the common good, to meet the needs of others as well as one’s own because “God destined the earth and all its contents for all people so that all created things would be shared by all under the guidance of justice tempered with charity” (GS 69). Pope John Paul II said: “… the goods of this world are equally meant for all … Private property, in fact, is under a social mortgage” (SRS 42). If you ask anyone who had an experience of holding a mortgage on a house, you would understand what Pope John Paul II meant when he said that private property is under a social mortgage. Just as one cannot fully claim that he owns a house until the mortgage is completely paid off, we cannot really say that we are the final owners of our material possessions that come from God. As long as we are God’s creation, just like the rest of the world, our holding of our property is strictly conditioned by our social obligation to the rest of God’s creation. To view our material properties as under a “social mortgage” means to use them and the rest of God’s creation according to how God meant them to be used – for our good and the good of others.
Care for the environment. The earth belongs to God and we have no right to exploit or destroy it. We are but stewards of God’s creation, we are not the real owner. We are accountable to God as the Creator of the world and source of all good things. Thus, we must take care of our environment. We cannot use the natural resources as though they were inexhaustible.
5. Application of Church’s socioeconomic principles to the individual economic choices:
We must aim for objectives that are in accordance to integral human development. Economics is not the sole aspect of human development; or better still, economics involves both the physical and spiritual aspects of life. Seeing economics in the light of such holistic objectives means recognizing that business should not be run solely for material profit.
Simplicity of lifestyle in the procurement and use of economic goods. Simple living is by no means glorification of poverty. Rather, it is a life of freedom from excessive pursuit for material things. Clement of Alexandria helps us to think along this line when he asked, “Tell me, does a table knife refuse to cut if it is not studded with silver or have a handle of ivory? … What difference does it make if the wash basin be only of clay? Will it not hold water anyway to wash hands?” (Rush Finn, “Economic Order,” 314)
Simplicity helps us remember that we are not the absolute owner of what we possess, we are morally obliged to see our possessions relative to the conditions of other people, especially the poor, and it is only in the spirit of human solidarity and dependence on God that we can truly share the gifts that we possess. By remembering these, we can arrive at what we call economic justice.
Integration:
Doctrine:
In the beatitudes, Jesus disclosed his special favor for the poor. All though out his life, death, and resurrection Jesus pointed out his mission of liberation especially for the needy and lowly to which we, his followers are to bear witness in our own lives.
The Biblical creation account states that God is the ultimate owner and source of all Creation. That is, everything we have, everything we are, is ultimately entrusted to us. Our talents, resources, other individuals, and communities are God’s gifts for us to love, develop, and share in our lifetime process.
Morals:
Preferential Option for the Poor is a Christian obligation. It is an essential option (not optional) of Christian faith, an obligatory choice to love all, specially the poor. Given the present economic condition of our society, one of the chief moral exhortations of the Philippine Catholic Church is to lead a simple lifestyle in solidarity with the poor, for the attainment of justice, and the common good. Filipinos are all called to a life free from inordinate attachment to worldly things. “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt. 25:40) – Clearly, Jesus identified himself with the least, the poor. And as baptized followers of Christ, we are morally obliged to follow his teaching and example to do our best to help the poor for what we do for them we do for Jesus. “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me” (Jn. 12:8) – Jesus is reminding us of the proper way to view our efforts to help the poor and fight poverty. While it is our moral obligation to strive to eliminate poverty, we must be vigilant not to be tempted to believe that our efforts will completely wipe out poverty from this world. For the truth is, this can happen only upon Jesus’ return, in his Second Coming, when he will be with us again, forever. In the meantime, there will always be poor because there is always the grace-sin tension in the world. As the fundamental cause of poverty, sin is the basic reason for its continued existence.
Worship:
- Authentic worship of the Lord is always rooted in the heart and related to the neighbor in loving compassion and service. (CFC 1480)
- Plenary Council of the Philippines II describes the Church as Church of the Poor, it calls on all Filipino Catholics to consciously link their worship with their social action; that is, to exercise our prayers to the Lord in our free actions undertaken for justice and love.
- The intimate connection of prayer and compassion for other human persons is clearly exemplified by Mary in her Magnificat (Lk. 1:46-55), proclaiming the greatness of the Lord for what He had done for His people especially the poor and the lowly.
- We express the truth of God, being the maker of heaven and earth in our celebration of the Mass. For example, in the offertory of the Mass the celebrant prays: “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. “ Again at the Sanctus, the whole congregation prays “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.” Clearly God as Creator is central to the liturgy. (CFC 350)