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Saturday, May 23, 2015
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Saturday, February 22, 2014
COMPETENCE, ACCOUNTABILITY AND ETHICALITY: Approaches to Institutionalizing Integrity in the Teaching Profession
N.B. This is a talk I delivered to a group of teachers and educators at a National Educators' Congress in Legazpi, Albay.
COMPETENCE,
ACCOUNTABILITY AND ETHICALITY:
Approaches to Institutionalizing Integrity in the
Teaching Profession
NATIONAL
EDUCATORS’ CONGRESS
The Oriental Hotel,
Legazpi, Albay
January 16, 2014
Introduction
There was very little time
to get up this talk. I was very busy since Yolanda wrought havoc to a great
part of Eastern Visayas more than two months ago and when the invitation got to
me, I was in the boonies of Eastern Samar, at the tip of the isthmus where
Guiuan is located, past the towns and barangays most hard hit on Samar island.
Let me put it straight. I
saw a lot of competence and its opposite, side by side, everywhere I went. I
saw examples of what accountability is, or ought to be, and examples, too, of
its very close cousin, ethicality. I saw people of hope, of courage, of
resiliency that cannot be described adequately unless one has seen it from
close ranks, in the faces of the millions who, despite all the suffering,
continue to hold on, plod on, live on, and go on looking forward to better days
ahead. Despite the incompetence of people whom we expected to have it, the
people, for the most part, remained whole, sane, sound, and relatively healthy
even in their pain, most of it due, whether we like it or not, to what we
Filipinos call “sariling sikap,” every man left on his own.
Integrity is another word
for all of the above – which all refer to a condition of unimpairedness,
wholeness, or soundness despite everything.
My talk this morning has
to do with all the words I just mentioned above: competence, accountability and
ethicality. They are all cousins of a bigger word that I also just mentioned –
integrity. Necessarily, my talk will consist of three parts. I will devote the
first part to the three above-mentioned words and a short summary of the three
via the word “integrity.” The second part will deal with a phenomenological
look at the current challenges posed to each of the three and all four, with
particular focus on integrity as applied to the teaching profession. By way of
conclusion, I would like to offer some suggested approaches for educators like
us to face up to those challenges.
PART ONE
Like Building an Edifice
I would like to think that
integrity is something like an edifice with a foundation, pillars, walls and
roofing. In putting up an edifice, one does not begin from the roof down. One
begins from the ground up. One needs to set up foundation, put up posts, wrap
them up with walls and top everything off with a roof.
In similar fashion, one
does not build integrity on nothing. No … you need the groundwork or context,
if you will, of competence. You need to plaster it all around with
accountability. You need to surround the whole context with the binding force
of ethicality. Only then can you talk about topping it all off with its logical
by-product and offshoot – integrity.
The Temple of Learning
I am sure you all are familiar
with the traditional model of what education is all about – the temple of
learning. The base, which is basic education, is equivalent to the foundation.
The pillars, stand for the posts of the different branches of learning. The
roof, in this case, stands for the arena of specialization, which by itself
cannot be achieved while prescinding from the other two.
And since we are all
educators here, it is just as well that we remain in this basic image and model
of what institutionalizing integrity in the teaching profession is ultimately
all about.
It is exactly what we
educators know best – mould young minds ever so gradually, methodically,
slowly, but surely, starting from the ground up, not the other way around. We
follow the normal developmental curve of learners and we all know that, just
like one does not start with the roof, one has to observe the so-called
principle of readiness, respecting the natural stages of physical, emotional,
and cognitive development of the learner.
And so, let us move methodically,
slowly, but surely.
Competence is Where We Begin
I learned long ago that
basic to our understanding of anything, is the need to grapple first and
foremost with a nominal definition. In logic, we need to know something first
by its genus. Only then can one proceed to talk about its specific difference.
For us to do this, we need to stand on common ground and define something
clearly and distinctly.
Let me start from
competence …
Competence is a concept
that can change depending on what one does for a living. For biologists,
competence has to do with cells’ ability to take up and carry DNA. Incompetent
cells are, therefore, diseased cells unable to pass on life data. For
geologists, it refers to resistance of rocks against either erosion or deformation.
Incompetent rocks, therefore, are easily worn, degraded, corrupted, and
destroyed by the elements. In the legal world of jurisdiction, it refers to the
authority of a legal body to deal with and make pronouncements on legal
matters, and by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of
responsibility. Thus, one who has no license or no jurisdiction in a particular
area is deemed incompetent. In the world of communication, it means the ability
to speak and understand language. One is either competent in a language or not.
Proficiency is what we sometimes call such competence. A person supposed to be
engaged in communication in whatever form, but who cannot even formulate a
decent sentence that can be understood, is thus declared incompetent. In the
area of HR management, competence refers to a standardized requirement for an
individual to properly perform a specific job. A leader, though elected by
popular vote, who has no vision, no goals, no direction, and who simply can’t
lead, is, on that score, an incompetent leader.
The last is what concerns
us. Teachers and educators like us are expected to be competent in the field we
are in, and it has to do with more than just knowing our stuff. It is in
actuality a combination of practical and theoretical knowledge, cognitive
skills, behavior and values used to improve performance. It is also known as
the state or quality of being adequately or sufficiently qualified, having the
ability to perform a specific role whose standards are governed by generally
accepted norms and agreed upon regulations, written or unwritten.
Competence in our chosen
job is not optional. It is not a matter of preference, but a matter of duty.
And performance of duty, as you all know, takes more than just wishful thinking
and is never achieved simply by brandishing like a sword nothing more than
cutesy slogans and memorable one-liners. One may foam in the mouth, hurling
invectives and spewing out forceful slogans, but unless all that takes off the
ground and springs into concrete action, it is nothing more than Shakespeare’s
“full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” It takes political will. It takes
boldness and courage, and it is achieved, both literally and figuratively, only
with blood, sweat, and tears, and a lot of grit and nerve!
As we all know, however, competence
alone, does not quite clinch it. A well-sharpened saw can do efficiently what
it is designed to do. It is on that score, very competent. But the competence
that we speak of, belongs to a higher order of being, that which is endowed
with intellect and free will, who can discern, choose and act on the basis of
that choice, and take responsibility for whatever that choice leads to.
Response-Ability as Accountability
Here, we enter into the
arena of responsibility, of accountability, of response-ability or the capacity
to stand by, stand tall and proud, come what may, happen what might, and take
responsibility for the consequences of that choice and decision. The nominal
definition of accountability is precisely that - answerability, blameworthiness,
liability, and the capacity to “give an account” of what one chooses and decides
to do.
Accountability is,
therefore, responsibility. Bruce Stone[1] writes
that there are eight types of accountability: moral/ethical, administrative,
political, managerial, market, legal/judicial, constituency relations, and
professional. As teachers who act as trustees of young people’s present and
future well-being, we are accountable on most of these eight types.
Ethicality as Responsibility
This leads us to the third
word for today: ethicality. Competence alone, we said, does not make us suited for
the job. We have had so many competent lawmakers, competent public speakers,
and competent this or that. But even the most recent experience we had showed
that these same competent lawmakers could not even explain satisfactorily where
the money went, other than proclaiming that overused excuse of a lie that their
signatures were faked. There goes competence piercing through the roof. But
there goes accountability, too, down the drain!
What is misssing?
Ethicality! Ethicality refers to that healthy balance between being capable of
doing the right things and doing things rightly. Competence may mean catering
to the mind and focusing on the what, but accountability means minding the how,
and focusing on the rightness or wrongness of what is done, and deciding
accordingly. It is a little like finding the right balance between being a
manager and being a leader. Managers focus on results as the bottom line.
Leaders focus on the process and are concerned with the welfare of people.
Managers, they say, do the right things, but leaders do them rightly.
The famous Viktor Frankl
expresses best that need for balance when he spoke about the need for the
United States to have the Statue of Liberty in the East Coast balanced by a
Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.[2]
Competence needs accountability. Competence and accountability make room for
ethicality. Competence alone may make for good teachers and good lecturers, but
without accountability which is the groundwork for ethicality, those same good
teachers cannot become good educators.
Contemporary Catholic
moral theology focuses more now not on rules and duties, but on responsibility.
Instead of a hard-nosed preoccupation with an ethics of duty, we focus on the
more positive ethics of responsibility, not a rule-based ethics, but a
virtue-based ethics – an ethics of response as distinct from an ethics of rules
and obligation.
PART TWO
Reading the Signs of the Times
I will now go to a
phenomenological reading of contemporary trends that pose as obstacles to competence,
accountability, and ethicality as related to the field of education. Given our
line of expertise which is the field of education, my focus would be on
competence in the educational setting, particularly on our job as teachers,
first and foremost, before being educators.
But first, a word on the
fast-rising phenomenon called social media … Nothing now is what it seems.
Profile pics now tell more lies than truth. People are younger than they really
are in their profiles, thanks to the growing phenomenon found only in social
media called “impression management.” Virtual reality that can imitate actual
reality can actually be made to appear better than reality. Research papers can
be made to appear very professionally done, thanks to the magic of software or
the use of the right apps. Competence can be faked, even as pictures can be
photoshopped. Identities can be copied or “stolen” like what Loella Tan just
did to Janka Cederstam, to the point of getting money from an unsuspecting
Australian man.[3]
Do you still remember the photographer who submitted a plagiarized photo taken
somewhere in Brazil, and passing it off as his own, and earning thousands of
dollars for it? As a teacher over the past 36 years, the fact that digital
files can be passed on quickly from one person to another, should make us all
wary of so-called “term papers” that have been harvested from some digital
repository and recycled as new by resourceful students.
Erosion of Truth
In the world of social
media, populated by digital natives, nothing is what it seems. Competence can
be faked faster than movies can be downloaded. Competence takes on a beating
especially if quick tweaking of files can be done with a few strokes of the
keyboard. And if identities can be faked, so, too can academic credentials
along with resumes that can easily be padded, depending on the need. If we are
to believe the legislators that are at the center of the PDAF scam, then
signatures can easily be faked, and alibis can easily be made. Competence here,
obviously, has shoved aside all traces of ethicality.
Truth is hard to come by
nowadays. News, that is really propaganda, really becomes noise, where facts
are interspersed with a lot of innuendoes, personal opinions, and a lot of
editorializing from the body language of so-called newscasters, who deliver
what passes off as news replete with sound effects for emphasis, or for
derision, or glorification of people they support or root for.
In the days immediately
following the fury and devastation of supertyphoon Yolanda, it was very hard to
sift the real news from reel reports of the big networks. CNN was giving a
totally different picture from that given by its local counterparts. Some
commenters in social media opined that, given the giant networks’ coverage of
their own “relief operations” of their own foundations, news and truth, for
that matter, became subservient and secondary to the siren songs of ratings.
Truth became secondary to self-serving propaganda.
In a show business crazed
culture that is the Philippines, even mainstream news that once was very
professionally done in decades past, was reduced to nothing more than
infotainment. Objective truth, in the end, suffers, and mass media becomes a
tool for propaganda of the ruling oligarchs and elite classes, whose businesses
are closely tied up with politics.
Education at the Service of Liberating Truth?
Education, as we all know,
is essentially about the pursuit of truth, be it scientific, sociological,
philosophical, existential, moral truth. Education is the pursuit, ultimately
of liberation. Only the educated can be free. Ignorance is slavery. Ignorance
is a curse.
But so is twisted truth.
When truth becomes subservient to ideology, and turned as footstool of
materialism, hedonism and individualism, and made to prop up liberalism and
unbridled materialist capitalism, there ensues a progressive dehumanization of
the person. Freedom is compromised and the capacity for people to choose freely
and intelligently is trampled upon.
Contours of Hopelessness
As early as 2004, Elaine
Robinson[4] was
already speaking about what she calls the “contours of hopelessness” in a
society that, she says, contains “structures that bear the tattered imprint of
modernity.” Such hopelessness, she further says, can “manifest itself in the
form of rationality,” “cynicism,” and “despair.”[5] Robert
Spitzer, refers to the same phenomenon from the philosophical viewpoint as the
rapid “cultural decline” of society all over the world.[6]
Technologism at the Center of It All
Robinson and many others
see all this as people trying to take refuge in science, knowledge, and
technology. Even Catholic moral theologians speak of technologism as the
tendency to find all answers to pressing questions as mediated by technology.
The rule is: “if it can be done, it should be done.” If we can clone people,
then let us do it. This is the triumph of technology. Gadgets are there to be
used until a new version comes around. In the Philippines, people are prepared
to kill for the latest cellphone. No one notices Rolex watches anymore, but
everyone does notice what phone you are using, especially if it is the latest
and most expensive model or brand.
Even our very own Chris
Tiu has this to say about it: “Our generation is built upon the media. Our
minds, opinions, and moral standards are shaped by what we see […] Whatever moral standard society once held
seems to have vanished, and left with it a relativistic morality built upon
impulse and feeling.”[7]
Although my intention is
not to bore you with deep theological details of the moral kind, I need to
mention that all the foregoing has to do with what Livio Melina calls the
“subjectivization of morality.” This subjectivization, in turn, springs from
two basic roots: on the philosophical
plane, the rupture between freedom and truth, and, on the theological plane,
the ruptue of the nexus between faith and morality.[8]
Subjectivization means the
focus turns to the self. It is no accident that today’s selfie generation also
turns out narcissists by the thousands, if not millions. Many studies have
already established a correlation between facebook and the rise of narcissism
among the young.
Modern-day Idolatries
This is where educators
like us come in. Awareness of what is going on, not in the sense of mere superficial
awareness, but critical awareness – what Paolo Freire[9] calls
“conscientizacao” – is needed if we are to be truly the educators that we call
ourselves. This means not just knowing on the surface, but really deeply
knowing what is going on. This means to see beyond the phenomenal and see the
phenomenological, the deep emerging realities of our young people, our society,
and what are needed for us to make a significant and effective intervention as
educators.
Elizabeth Scalia[10] has a
listing of new idolatries that now bedevil our society. Calling them “strange
gods,” they are the following: the Idol of the “I,” idol of the idea, idol of
prosperity, the idol of technology, the idols of coolness and sex, the idol of
plans, and what she calls, the super
idols. We will not comment here on each and everyone of them, but I am sure you
can relate to at least two of them that I just discussed: the idol of the “I”
and the the idol of technology.
PART THREE
What Are We to Do Then?
Let us make no mistake
about it. We educators are in the front lines of this big cultural battle. And
since we referred to our being more than just teachers, given the so many and
mounting challenges ahead of us, we definitely need to be known as people who
deliver … people who do not merely follow the bandwagon of the popular, the
convenient and the comfortable.
Choosing the Path Less Travelled By
We need to make a
difference. And making a difference is not just following the drift and
allowing the current to carry us where we don’t want to go. That less worn path
of deep awareness and concrete action, unfortunately means we need to be
heroes. Heroes don’t live ordinary lives. They are not afraid to go against the
grain, and venture out on new unfamiliar territories to make a difference in
people’s lives.
Let me now suggest a few
approaches that would allow us to combine competence, accountability, and
ethicality so as to forge new avenues towards integrity in our difficult and
challenging task as educators.
Go Where the Camel is Already Going
Let me begin with the
obvious. Pop culture tells us this much … If you can’t beat them, join them! It
has a grain of truth. According to Arab culture, you can’t really force the
camel to go where you like him to go. It is easier to go towards where the
camel is already going, they say. The camel knows and would not lead you deeper
into the desert. By instinct, it knows where the oases are, where there is
life.
Let me explain what I
mean. The young are already deeply
immersed in technology. Whilst idolatry is very possible among them (and among
adults, too), it is good to remember that, apart from going where the camel is
already going, it is also good to “ride the dragons” and “roll with the
punches.” We need to tame the dragon. We need to learn how to roll with the
punches. According to the Rogers Adoption curve, 2 per cent are innovators, 14
percent are early adopters, 34 percent are in the early majority, 34 percent
are in the late majority, and 16 percent are laggards in terms of technology.[11]
Very few among us are
digital natives who were born from 1994 onwards. Some of us, like me, are
digital migrants who took to the world of computer by force of circumstances.
There are those of us who are digital dinosaurs. We need to loosen up and go
where the camel is already going. You know what I mean. We need to grow in
competence even in, and especially, in this area. And since part of competence
is in the area of the capacity to speak the language of the young, then we need
to learn the computer language, very literally and figuratively.
Towards Healthy Differentiation
But this does not mean
going exactly the way our young charges go. Technology may have become an idol
for many. For adults like us, our plans may be our idols, or our ideas, or the
desire for prosperity. This is where the need for integrity kicks in. We need
to work for competence, yes, and accountability, too. But there is the issue of
ethicality to think about.
My recent trip of mercy to
Eastern Samar proved at least for me what I have been hearing about many times
before. Corruption is not limited to congress and other high profile government
agencies like Customs and BIR. Corruption has become a deeply embedded culture
in and out of government, in every sector, in every nook and cranny of this
island nation. I saw it in the ports, in the checkpoints manned by men in
uniform, in municipal halls, in barangay offices, etc. Why, I even see it in
the way books are procured, even in private schools. And they take seemingly
innocent forms like free trips to Bangkok, care of the book publishers, free
seminars in five-star hotels, free cars for doctors courtesy of pharmaceutical
companies. The list is legion. In the name of the drive for competence, we all
tend to cut a few corners here and there, and accountability flies out the
window of expediency and opportunity to make a little more from out of the
ordinary sources of income.
I do not need to do a
cross section and an autopsy of how corruption takes place. They come in the
form of perks, or gifts given by book publishers not in the confines of the
school, but in posh restaurants, hotels, and even at home. This comes also in
the form of requests from Principals to renovate the office, change the
airconditioning unit, or sponsor their educational trip to some oversea
destination. Nothing seemingly wrong? Yes … until you do the math and realize
that nothing really comes for free, but added to the bill at the end, or passed
on to parents in terms of more expensive books and workbooks. Administrative
and moral accountability both take center stage, and without ethicality, it
would just be treated as normal administrative procedural matters.
Academic and Personal Integrity
When ethicality is thrown
into the mix of competence and accountability, then we move into the world of
integrity, either personal or academic integrity. Integrity, like we said
above, is the state of being unimpaired, a situation of soundness. From the
moral viewpoint, it means being beyond blame, being virtuous, being upright,
honest, and focused on the common good, and the good of the students.
But we educators need to
make a distinction between being righteous for righteousness’ sake, and doing
the right things along with doing things rightly for others’ sake. The former
is ethicality that stops with our person, but perfects us and makes us become
what we are meant to become. The latter is ethicality that goes beyond our
person and benefits those we work for, those we educate, and those we have
dedicated our lives for. The first is something that all of us can do at any
time even if we get no awards or citations for it. Virtue is its own reward
which is exactly analogous to saying that art is good for its own sake, or ars
artis gratia, as the ancient Romans would say.
The latter however is
righteousness that extends beyond ourselves, that has repercussions on others.
And because it goes far beyond perfecting ourselves, we need to go the extra
mile so that we could help establish a culture that makes it easier for others
to become also the best version of themselves.
Working for Academic Integrity
Approaches to Assuring Integrity in the Teaching
Profession
Academic integrity cannot
be taken apart from authentic education. Without academic integrity, there can
be no authentic education. Applied to education, the integrity we refer to
simply means one thing – no cheating whatsoever. As educators and teachers, we
are duty bound to cultivate a culture and set up a structure that makes all
forms of cheating as close to impossible as we can work for.
As we have seen,
technology plays a big role and is actually the most predominant factor in
assuring academic integrity. It has greatly affected education in many ways,
but the two most striking is that it has expanded in ways undreamt of before
the traditional models of teaching and learning while at the same time
challenging them. Huge amounts of data can now be stored, transferred, or
copied in minutes. Provenance of information can become blurry and attributions
can be shady. The speed by which information can be sent, resent, forwarded and
modified can be dangerous and can be used for other sinister motives. Subtle manipulation
has been redefined by the internet and the relative anonymity afforded by
cyberspace has contributed to the phenomenon called disinhibition, where people
think they can afford to be less honest, less charitable, more biting, more
sarcastic, and more caustic since “in cyberspace, no one knows you’re a dog.”
Issues of identity,
sincerity, honesty and truthfulness are sidetracked and glossed over.
Plagiarism and lack of self-responsibility take center stage. What I pass on
and forward is not my responsibility. One end result of all this is that
teachers and students now have a skewed perception of what ownership of
information may entail, and of what responsibility anyone has in what is passed
on as truth. Information that someone else has worked so hard for to acquire,
is in a matter of minutes, considered as collective property, or referred to as
“creative commons.”
Values-Driven Academic Integrity
The Center for Academic
Integrity[12]
lists down 5 fundamental values of academic integrity that may well be worth
our attention: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. “From
these values flow principles of behavior that enable academic communities to
translate ideals into action.” The values are self-explanatory. We do not need
to belabor what everyone considers obvious.
What they all point to is
the commitment, even in the face of adversity, to uphold and cultivate those
values everywhere and at all times.
Values that All Point Back to the Individual Person
But as you can see, all
these values really boil down to personal virtues – traits that individually we
all are called to embody. This means one very important thing, all approaches
towards cultivating integrity in the teaching profession begins with the
individual person, though it does not end with the person. What begins as
values out there, becomes virtues in each and everyone of us. What takes shape
as personal virtues have a way of spilling over into external structures,
policies, and guidelines that help build the edifice of academic and personal
integrity.
The Importance of Integrity
There is a surprising
write-up from a Muslim writer that is striking. Ayesha Almazroui[13] gives a
definition of integrity and presents its importance in education. Surprisingly,
the author jibes with practically what Roman Catholics teach about conscience
in general. Conscience for us is not just a vague feeling that something is
right or wrong. Conscience is not reduced to mere values that are not geared
towards action. Conscience is a process, not an internal state of being.
Almazroui pretty much states the same thing. The author states that there are
three steps required for integrity to take place: 1) discern what is right and
what is wrong; 2) a person should act on what has been discerned; 3) a person
should say openly he is acting based on his discernment of right and wrong.
Do you care to know the
opposite of all three? Just one word, and one word we can do less of as
educators – corruption!
References:
Frankl, Viktor (1959).
Man’s search for meaning. New York: Pocket Books.
Freire, Paulo (2007). The
pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum Press.
Garriepy, K.D., Spencer,
B.L., & Couture, J.C. (Eds) (2009). The fundamental values of academic
integrity. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Jabbra, J.G. &
Dwivede, O.P. (Eds) (1989). Public service accountability: A comparative
Perspective. Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.
Melina, Livio (2001).
Sharing in Christ’s virtues: For a renewal of moral theology in the light of
veritatis splendor. Washington,DC: The Catholic University of America Press.
Robinson, E. (2004). These
three: The theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Cleveland: The Pilgrim
Press.
Scalia, Elizabeth (2013).
Strange gods: Unmasking the idols of everyday life. Notre Dame: Aver Maria
Press.
Spitzer, Robert (2011).
Ten universal principles: A brief philosophy of the life issues. San Francisco:
Ignatius Press.
Tuazon, Oliver M. (2012).
No holds barred: Questions young people ask. Manila: Cobrin Publishing.
Vogt, Brandon (2011). The
church and new media. Blogging converts, online activists, and bishops who
tweet. Huntington, IN: OSV.
Fr.
Vitaliano “Chito” Dimaranan, SDB, CAS, MThL, PhD
National
Educators’ Congress
The
Oriental Hotel
Legazpi
City, Albay
January
16-17, 2014
[1]
cf. Jabbra, J.G. & Dwivede, O.P. (Eds). Public Service Accountability: A
Comparative Perspective. Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, c. 1989.
[2]
Frankl, Viktor. Man’s Search for Meaning. C. 1956, pp. 209-210
[3] cf. “Call Center Agent Arrested for Facebook
Identity Theft” from http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/04/20/12/call-center-agent-arrested-identity-theft
retrieved January 14, 2014
[4]
Robinson, E. These Three: The Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love.
Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, c. 2004
[5]
ibid., p. 86-87
[6]
Spitzer, Robert. Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life
Issues. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, c. 2011.
[7]
Chris Jay Tiu in Tuazon, Oliver M. No Holds Barred: Questions Young People Ask.
Manila: Cobrin Publishing, c. 2012, location 60.
[8]
Melina, Livio. Sharing in Christ’s Virtues: For a Renewal of Moral Theology in
Light of Veritatis Splendor. Washington DC: The Catholic University of America
Press, c. 2001, pp. 18ss
[9]
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, c. 2007.
[10]
Scalia, Elizabeth. Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life. Notre
Dame: Ave Maria Press, c. 2013.
[11] Landry, Scot. “Innovative Shepherding: New
Media in the Diocese,” in Vogt, Brandon. The Church and New Media: Blogging
Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops who Tweet. Huntington: OSV, c. 2011,
p.112.
[12]
Garriepy, K. D., Spencer, B.L., & Courure, J.C. (Eds). The Fundamental
Values of Academic Integrity. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, c. 2009.
[13]
Almazroui, Ayesha. “The Definition of Integrity is Important in Education,” in http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/news-comme,
retrieved January 13, 2014.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
HONESTY, WHAT ROLE DOES IT PLAY?
HONESTY
Because you do not steal, does not necessarily mean that you are honest.
Honesty is synonimous with honor, fairness, integrity, truthfulness and freedom from fraud.
When you commit an action against accepted precepts of honor, you are not honest; you are dihonorable.
When you are not impartial in your actions and judgments, you not honest, you are unfair.
When you deliberately commit an injustice because your action has been influenced by fear, gain, or favoritism, you are not honest; you lack integrity.
When you lie, you are not honest, you are a liar.
When you pretend to be what you are not, you are not honest; you are a fraud.
When you take away anything that belongs to another, without his consent, you are not honest; you are a thief.
When you do not try your best in the discharge of your duties, you are not honest; you are no good.
EFFICIENCY
Efficiency in the service is the satisfactory manner in which you perform the work assigned to you.
A piece of work is satisfactorily performed when it accomplishes the desired result with the minimum use of energy and time.
As in any kind of human activity, only painstaking practice can attain near perfection. Therefore, get into the habit of doing things promptly and to the best of your ability, always looking for easier, quicker and better means of doing them in the future.
Avoid being too technical. Comply with the spirit rather than with the letter of any instruction, rule or regulation, when you find it conflicting with the main objective.
LOYALTY
You owe it to your superiors, to all your equals, and to all your subordinates, but above all, you owe it to your employer [the Company]. Don't think of the Company as something remote and abstract. It should be closer to you than anything else, as you are fortunate enough to be in its service. Your loyalty to your superiors, your equals, and to your subordinates ends where your loyalty to the Company begins. When you find yourself torn between your loyalty to your superiors and friends on the one hand, and to the Company on the other, your duty is first to your Company.
As loyal employees in the service [...] we should feel keenly, as resting upon our shoulders, the responsibility of creating as good and wholesome image of [ ... ] as possible.
I post this today, 16 February 2014, 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. The Gospel reminds us of three realities that are closest to the humanity of all of us: anger, lust, and the need to be truthful and honest. Traditional teaching tells us it is not sinful, per se, to be angry, but what is sinful is what we do with it. Experience shows us that lust is something we all human beings need to temper and control, and that, it concerns, first and foremost, the interior before the exterior of our personhood. The third is what concerns us most in our times - the lack of passionate dedication to TRUTH, and the wanton disregard for the value of TRUTH-TELLING.
These three items concern us all deeply, individually and collectively. At no other time in our common history has the need for truth-telling taken center stage in our collective consciousness, when accusations left and right are met with denials left and right, and people concerned seem to be infinitely capable of not batting an eyelash while telling a pack of lies, for the whole world to see, in public television, no less.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
FORZA! SEMPRE AVANTI CON DON BOSCO!
It feels good to be back.
This is a place that shaped me to be what and who I am. This is a school that moulded me, and, by God’s grace, a home that I also helped develop over the many years I was here – all told, a total of 20 years of my life!
I came here as a wide-eyed college freshman back in 1972, when the South Luzon tollway was yet on the drawing board. Back then, from everywhere we stood in campus, we could see untrammeled, three distinct and unmistakable landmarks that told us we were in beloved Canlubang – the slopes of Mt. Makiling in the east, the horned peak of Mt. Sungay in the west, and the signature smoke stacks of the then enviable, remarkable, and at one and the same time, rustic, yet progressive, Canlubang Sugar Estate.
The Philippines then, and its system of education, was the envy of the rest of our Asian neighbors. A significant number of their citizens flocked to our universities to get a solid education in all imaginable fields. When I left Canlubang in 1979, for Theological studies, the South Luzon expressway was then in full operation, and whilst our educational system still could make a few of our Southeast Asian neighbors’ heads turn, things were starting to take a back seat to a highly politicized people whose tolerance for a heavy-handed and authoritarian regime, was running low.
I came back here in 1983, after four years of theological studies, an emaciated but enthusiastic young priest, who would rather be doing ministry anywhere else but in Canlubang. The economy was in disarray. The political scene was beginning to crumble. We hit rock bottom when Ninoy Aquino, on whom the whole nation pinned her hopes for better governance, was assassinated. That was the time when we were at our worst, and at our best. The economy was on a tailspin dive. Money was hard to come by, and imports dwindled to a trickle. But, true to our form as a resilient people, we rose to the occasion, and made miracles out of whatever precious little we could come up with. The lowly lugaw became dish extraordinaire to savor with relish, and fill growling stomachs. A variety of street food the likes of which my generation would never have dreamt of, nor imagined as children, became fare de rigueur: isaw, IUD, day-old chicks fried to a crisp and dipped in bright orange batter, adidas, and helmet, and the now all-time favorite, tokwa’t baboy.
We became creative in many aspects of our lives, from gustatory delights made from stuff that no self-respecting chef anywhere in the world would dare even touch, to hand-me-down right-hand drive vehicles that were converted in no time to run on pothole-ridden streets all over the country, to making fun of the powers-that-be through rhyme or rhythm, drama or dance. We registered our protest in music and mime, and made known our dissatisfaction with government in poetry and prose, by means fair or foul, in every imaginable way. We definitely suffered as a people. But we thrived. We flourished in circumstances where others of weaker fiber, would probably have perished.
At the lowest point in our civil lives, we rose in the estimation of the whole world. We made history as a people in 1986, precisely when we were in the nadir of our collective experience of oppression and injustice. We were at our best when we thought we were at our worst. We came up with the ultimate wonder that shocked and awed the whole world, a miracle that could not have happened without intervention from above. It was indeed, as the popular song goes, a great “handog ng Pilipino sa mundo” a gift of the Filipino people to the world.
But further tests and trials came our way. We could not handle success. We did not know what to do with newfound freedom. Just when we were poised to take off and once more take our rightful place under the sun of respected, developing and developed nations, we shot ourselves in the foot. Not once. Not twice, but many times over. We learned the art of making coup d’etat. We almost became a banana republic. But then again, some enterprising guy made use of that concept, turned it around, and capitalized on it by selling apparel appropriately named – what else? – but Banana Republic!
We found solace in humor. We rolled on the floor with national dignity and poise intact, laughing at ourselves. Congressman Manhik-Manaog became a familiar figure in our households. The face and the person behind those infamous three thousand pairs of shoes became object of endless satire and subtle – but always funny – innuendoes. We laughed when we were angry. We laughed even when our government was almost down on her knees one fine day of December 1989, when two US Phantom jets had to do what they called persuasion flights in order to send the dog of rebellion away, with tail tucked between its legs.
And it was not funny at all. We knew that. People were dying for nothing, some of them hit by stray bullets, because they were laughing their way through the lines of battle, giving silly victory signs to media people from all over the world.
We were so taken up with what they call a healthy sense of humor. Yes, probably therapists were right in talking about the uncanny ability of us Pinoys to laugh endlessly at our own foibles.
But on hindsight, even as we laughed and guffawed our way to mental health, we might have missed out on a whole lot of other things. We were growing immune to emerging national problems, and getting used to shooting ourselves in the foot once too often. Liberal mainstream media came out to entertain us, to inform us, and, I might add, to dehumanize us. TV Patrol took news reporting to a whole new level. Without us realizing, that prime time bit of tabloid entertainment masquerading as news began to set the tone followed by the other network, and recently followed by a third emerging media giant, all three specializing in doling out what is passed off as news - editorialized, biting against those who are not on their side, and definitely biased. As we made minced meat of the shenanigans of public figures through laughter, we missed out on so many more important issues, and we woke up one morning realizing that, first, we had no safety nets to cushion the runaway population growth and the concomitant swelling ranks of half educated graduates who had no jobs to look forward to. Second, our hearts sank in disbelief and denial realizing that the envied educational system of yore, has turned into yarn, or has become mere urban legend. Would-be lawyers who were graduates of the best law schools of the land could not pass the bar exams because of their atrocious English. They did not understand the questions, so how were they expected to give answers? Up till now, I still am of the opinion that not all of us have fully realized that the demons we fought so hard for, and laughed about and against, prior to 1986 are now back with a vengeance, or that most probably, they actually had never left at all. Hydra-headed corruption, institutionalized and deeply embedded in all aspects of our private and public social institutions, including schools, from the national government down to the lowly, but lucrative barangay offices, has actually not disappeared, but merely temporarily retreated until the coast was cleared. It rose to prominence when we let down our guard. As we laughed, it quietly took root. Even as we protested quietly, it careened out of anyone’s control. First, we thought it was only Customs or BIR that was involved. Then, before we knew it, it was the Bureau of Immigration, too; the LTO, and the AFP. The standing joke right now, as you know, is that the best business school in the world as of this time is not Wharton School of Business, but the PMA, where honor, integrity, loyalty are good only for photo ops during graduation. Now, it is all part of what Jun Lozada popularized simply as “kalakaran,” from the NAIA, to NIA; from SUCs to LGUs. We realized that, for all the efforts, hopes, and pleadings we put into getting up two historical EDSA revolts, it only takes four short years for a greedy AFP general to quietly stash hundreds of millions of pesos, and buy some ten houses somewhere in their favorite vacation and shopping place, the great United States of America, with plenty of cash to spare for relatives and friends back home.
But now, back to my story about Canlubang and me. Ten years into my priesthood, fresh from studies in the eternal city, I was back here in Canlubang in 1992. There were more seminarians than the facilities could handle. The College was getting to become close to impossible to run as a College should be run, what with the sore lack of funds to keep the enterprise of quality education going. Problems ranged from dealing with the daily hours-long "brown-outs" (power outages) to looking for decent plates, cups, and saucers, and study desks and chairs, the sore lack of which almost made college and seminary life look more like they were on perpetual camping mode with very little study on the side.
Problems had a name ... Legion ... and my having just planed in then from affluent Western Europe and USA didn't help any with my creeping sense of despondency and depression. Buildings and facilities were run-down. Cow manure littered the whole place, including the corridors. Praying the rosary while walking up and down campus was a little like playing Russian Roulette. Every evening promised to be full of surprises. And quite unlike Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, "you never knew what you were gonna git," it was just a matter of minutes before the smell of freshly stepped on manure, would waft through the air, signaling that some unfortunate soul had stepped on some mine that was definitely not gold, but something that would goad you into running for the nearest faucet for a good foot bath.
I would like to stop here ... Yes! and no, ... I am not referring to my talk, but what I mean is to stop giving you all a litany of woes.
Why do I tell you this story, you might wonder? It is simply this ... I have a story to tell and it is not about me, but about you all ...
But first, let me begin with a story within a story ... It is a story of a man named Richard Rich. In Robert Bolt's moving play "A Man for All Seasons," Richard Rich was a promising and ambitious young man who happened to cross paths with the great Thomas More. Focused on his goals, Richard, who saw an opportunity of a lifetime, petitioned the Chancellor Thomas More to give him a position among the gliteratti of King Henry VIII's court. "I can offer you no position as a courtier, but only one as teacher," the saint answered the young man. Rich was crestfallen. To lift up his spirits a bit, More rejoined: "You will make for a good teacher." The ambitious young man then asked him, "And if I were, who would know it?" He did not want to be a nobody. He wanted to make it big and be somebody. Sometime later in the moving story, after More had done him a favor by giving him a gift of a golden goblet which the saint refused to use, thinking that it had been given to him as a bribe. Richard Rich accepted it, and later perjured himself, betrayed his benefactor and mentor, testified against him for the trumped up crime of bribery, in exchange for being a collector of tax revenues for Wales, and effectively sent the saint to death in the gallows. He made it big alright, but at the expense of a man who knew what it meant to live with honor and integrity.
This is a story within a bigger story that I want to share with you today, especially the graduates.
This is the story of Don Bosco College, Canlubang and a great deal of the graduates that she has produced since 1963, and the people who formed them ... a story of simplicity and quiet dedication to things that people wouldn't even know about. This is the story told by so many individuals who were the exact antithesis of the likes of Richard Rich and his ilk, who had focus, but no refinement; goals, but no vision; ambition but no dedication; achievement but no honor and integrity.
This is the story of Father Joseph Carreno, who, together with the likes of Father Carlo Braga, and the selfless generosity of the late Don Jose Yulo, Sr. saw beyond the seeming lack of promise and prosperity in the sugar cane studded fields out in the boonies of Laguna, and invested their time, treasure and talent, and a lot of courage and hope to lay the foundations of a college you chose to enroll in.
Father Joseph Carreno, educated beyond my capabilities, learned beyond compare, a mathematician, a polyglot, a scientist, and so many other things all rolled into one, left a very successful mission in far flung India to lay the cornerstone of a dream that was Don Bosco College. Quite unlike the ambitious Rich in Bolt's play, he died relatively unknown, uncelebrated, perhaps even unappreciated in his native Spain. He worked hard for others, but did not work hard at getting a name for himself.
This is a story about the likes, too, of Fr. Alfred G. Cogliandro, founder, builder, photographer, preacher par excellence, spiritual director and leader. Having spent so many years in Italy, India, and the United States, he saw the best and the worst of both worlds. He was at home in plenty, and even more so at home in situations of want. He had a vision, and little ambition. He lived and worked quietly, simply, faithfully all the way till the last days of his earthly life till he died September 11, 1992.
This is the story of Father John Monchiero. He was a Jack-of-all trades. He was a farmer, a pastor, a confessor, a self-styled chemist, and a social worker. As Director of RI, he was the lifeline of many a poor family in Buntog, Mabato, Mangumit, Kasile and many other far-flung barrios. He would buy their meager vegetable harvest, for they had no way of taking them down to market. He helped many sick people earn back their health and regain their self-respect. His simplicity is summed up by his motto which we found attached to his bed: "Ask for nothing. Refuse nothing. Expect nothing. Be satisfied if they tolerate you."
This is the story of Fr. George Schwarz, a scientist, a confessor, a builder, a total educator. Hundreds of millions passed through his hands. When he died, he had nothing more than a few shirts, a few pairs of pants, and a few threadbare cassocks in his possession.
This is the story of Jomar Forcadilla, Noel Caibiran, Jovito Soberano and everyone they stood for ... No one, then and now, would know it. No one would probably care anymore. But theirs is a story of simple and quiet personal transformation. They all died in their prime, but they died as they lived ... simple and unassuming.
But this, too, is the story of a great many of the graduates of this college since 1963. The great majority of us are not known and definitely not adulated. We don't make it to the headlines, and we don't hog primetime TV like that boorish yet immensely popular guy of Wowowee notoriety. We are not matinee idols and most of us would not attract second glances at any event.
But ours is a story of simple and silent transformation ... of ourselves, and of the places that are blest and enriched with our presence. We have graduates who live and work in the US; graduates who find themselves in Western Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, China, Japan, the Middle Eastern countries, Australia, New Zealand, and many others in more than 140 countries all over the world. They do everything one can imagine. Most are teachers and educators like me. A few who sort of “fell along the way,” five of them to be exact, are Bishops serving not only here, but abroad. A great many are lowly machinists and machine operators who take pride in their work. But almost all are engaged in what Don Bosco College has trained most of us for, and hopefully, you too, and that is, engage the world in a constructive interaction for quiet transformation and social change. Even now, the magic of social networking sites show me almost on a daily basis what good so many Bosconians from Canlubang have done, and are doing quietly, in their little corner of the world.
This is the unfolding story of bloggers, of accomplished writers in their own right, ordinary workers and employees, teachers, managers, or successful entrepreneurs who tell the world about what they have learned from the school of St. John Bosco. As a former student, teacher, formator, leader, administrator and pastor myself in this august institution, I can tell you that there is nothing sweeter than to hear former students give us back what they learned from us, or heard us say, all done in the spirit of gratitude and simple delight.
But this story is an ongoing one. It is by no means finished yet. And today, as I tell you some bits and pieces of this ongoing saga, I would like to offer a word of caution.
We live in a world saturated by conflicting and contrasting stories. Whilst we have, and can recount stories of selfless quiet heroism, we do live in a postmodern world, which, according to Elaine Robinson, is filled with the contours of hopelessness. The mainstream world of mass media is never wanting of wicked stories of exploitation, abuse, and dehumanization. The so-called "media moment" dominates our waking thoughts, and inundates our subconscious. The precious little young people can now get from education in a catholic school such as ours, is effectively canceled out by crass materialism, hedonism, and what Fr. Rolheiser refers to as “unbridled restlessness.”
Back in 1986, I was here. And so were some of you who are here now, including your most capable Dean of College. I was in tears when, just a few days prior to the four fateful and faith-filled days of February, I had to be sent on exile for doing what I thought was the best then, help the best way I knew how, to engage the world around me in quiet transformation. Forbidden to leave my post, but raring to join the millions who braved hunger and the very real possibility of their lives being snuffed out by the big guns out there in EDSA, I kept tearful vigil listening all day and all night to Radyo Bandido. Fast forward to 1989 ... at an early December late afternoon, atop my perch at the antenna tower of Don Bosco in Mandaluyong, as I saw the Tora-Tora planes pulverize Camp Aguinaldo, again, like the cry-baby that I had always been, I was in tears, grieving for a country brought down to its knees, and set back by another decade, poised as it was to take off, and join the league of respectable nations. Again, fast forward to the year 2000 ... I was fuming mad in my office here in Canlubang, as I saw the now infamous non-opening of that sealed envelope. As I was wiping away tears, I called for a quick prayer service and gathered a little crowd of students and families from around Ceris, Canlubang, and Mayapa. After the rosary, I told the little flock: "Something big will happen later this evening. We have to be prepared to do something." That very evening, I mobilized this little flock and went to EDSA. And I am proud to tell you, that we were among the first few people that got to EDSA. And as you all know by now, the crowd swelled to hundreds of thousands within a few hours.
The story goes on. I came not just to tell you snippets of it. I accepted the invitation to challenge everyone who has spent many years internalizing the school motto that we set in place way back in 1993, AD MAIORA NATUS.
The story is ongoing because it is a story still being written by others who, like me, follow the footsteps of giants like Fr. Carreno, Fr. Cogliandro, Fr. Monchiero, Fr. Schwarz, and everyone else I mentioned, and many more I choose not to mention. It is a story which I definitely hope would have some consistency and continuity further down the road, egged on by respect for history and tradition, spurred on by the spirit that originally inspired the founders of this institution.
It is a story that I challenge everyone of you now graduating to continue on writing, if needed, with blood, sweat, and tears, as those who came before you did.
The world as we know it now is deeply mired in everything that is not life. Life disabling events continue to barrage our daily lives, and life-enabling leaders are few and far between. The landscape of our lives is characterized, like Robinson says, with the unmistakable contours of hopelessness. Millions of Filipinos cheered, and clapped, and laughed as Jan-Jan, the little boy of 6, was being subjected to a degrading, dehumanizing, and life disabling ridicule as he “macho-danced” and shed tears before what appeared to me like Roman crowds of old, lusting and thirsting for blood in the cruel circus of life as we now know it. The Wowowee or Willing-wili culture has taken hold of the national psyche of the Filipino, to our national shame, and, the worst part of it is, no one seems to be bothered anymore.
This is a story that I challenge you, even beg you, to write. Just recently, I was saddened to have noted that, at least one company around Canlubang has banned Bosconians from ever being employed therein. Reason? Some alumni were involved in pilferage and falsification of inventory records.
I could go on and on. The fact that it almost took ten years since I left Canlubang for me to be officially invited to do something like this does not help me any right now. I have a lot to share. As an educator, poor copy though I am, of the giants I talked to you about, I do take my role seriously. And this is where I go personal, and, with your indulgence, a little theological.
Your theme could not have been better chosen, GRACED BY HIS VISIT, SPURRED BY HIS SPIRIT. Don Bosco’s sacred relics just paid you a historical and monumental visit. The saint, the man, the father and teacher of youth, is credited with setting into motion a whole slew of everything you can think of to transform culture on a grand scale. In his humble and seemingly little ways, he spurred the young to do ordinary things extraordinarily well. He engaged the world of his time and place in a mutually interactive mode that led gradually to social transformation and personal change. The places he visited in his life, the people he interacted with, powerful and powerless alike, rich and poor, educated or not educated, felt graced, empowered, & enabled. But all those who felt graced and empowered, were also eventually spurred on, goaded on, and encouraged to do likewise. And the remarkable thing about all those who followed him and were spurred on by his spirit, was that they were all simple and humble folks, ordinary people like you and me, but called to do extraordinary things.
Richard Rich, for all his naked ambition, did make it big up there. But he was no more than a hated tax collector. He was nothing more than a person with a pusilla anima, a small insignificant soul. Fr. Carreno was a giant, a soul that can only be described as magna anima, magnanimous in his dreams for others, magnanimous in his work as genius, magnanimous in his gift of himself as formator, teacher, writer, father, and friend, par excellence. Ad maiora natus was the spirit that spurred him on, the same spirit that led all the others I mentioned to heights albeit unrecognized by the world deeply steeped in the Willing Willie culture of inanity and plain sordid and shallow material gain.
This is the story I would like you to tell …a paradoxical, seemingly contradictory story of humility and greatness; a story of quiet dedication and commitment; a story of silent magnanimity of heart, never mind if the world does not recognize it; a story akin to what Hans Urs von Balthasar calls the “theo-drama,” where not all are prima donnas, not all are top billing actors, and not all can be accommodated to the courts of the reigning Kings and Queens of our times. From here on, I would like to get it straight from the horse’s mouth. I quote Robert Barron who wrote apropos this so eloquently:
“Our lives are not, finally, about us, and thanks be to God for it. We are part of what Urs von Balthasar calls the theo-drama, the theater of God’s glory. We are not the directors of the great play; we are but actors in it, struggling to follow the stage direction of the Spirit.”
“In any well written play, even the minor characters have an essential purpose, and sometimes those players who seem least significant for the bulk of the drama emerge, by the end, as the decisive figures. So it is in the theo-drama. Every human being has been created, our faith wagers, for participation in the play that God writes, and no one’s role is unimportant. In fact, those people who seem most weighty in the ordinary judgment of the world – presidents, epic poets, generals, business moguls – might be, in the context of the theo-drama, only bit players, while, on the contrary, those who seem least significant to the world might, in the end, be the stars of God’s production. The essential task for those in any drama is to listen to the director and to trust in his vision. When one player attempts to upstage another or to reinterpret her role, he upsets the delicate balance that the director wants to achieve. So in the theo-drama, we must obey the promptings of the spiritus rector and accept the role that his love holds out to us, even if it seems less than satisfying from our perspective.”
The story goes on … this theo-drama in a world satisfied with mediocrity and a lack of pursuit of excellence. Ad maiora natus is an antidote to all this. Forza is our battle cry as we Bosconians go out in full force to engage the world toward transformation. But while I spoke about things in the past, the recent visit of Don Bosco is really a call to engage the future. Graced by his visit in the past, we need to allow him to spur us on further, not in time past, but in time future and time present. As T.S. Eliot puts it, “time past and time future, what might have been and what has been, point to one end, which is always present.” (Burnt Norton)
But we need to go a little philosophical and spiritual about it. We need to disabuse the linear mode of thinking that equates success with power, prestige, position, perks, and perch. We need to allow the spirit of the founders to gently mould us into becoming seeming signs of contradiction: learned without being pedantic; moneyed without being enslaved to it; educated without becoming bloated with intellectual pride; simple whilst not being simpletons; humble without being irrelevant; engaged without being too involved in sordid affairs; focused on goals without being myopic; in love with life yet not being unduly attached to it; earthly without being worldly; heavenly in outlook whilst not being too spiritualistic; … yes, born for greater things, without being too engrossed into things; imbued with a passion for greatness without being given to grandiosity. This is the classical way of our God, who is Lord and King, but who was never curvatus in se, that is, caught up in Himself, but one who humbled Himself as man like us, and gave Himself fully “for the life of the world,” pro mundi vita! This is the way of paradox … a way that the world does not easily understand, a way that is summed up by this great teaching of Scripture, that the way ultimately to life in its fullness, is by way of death, death to self, death to all that is not life.
When I left this little paradise in 2002, I wrote in borrowed words the deep emotions I had, that were all part of the great love I nurtured, and still nurture, for this place that molded me beyond my imagination:
Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.
(T.S. Eliot, “East Coker”)I end this talk with more borrowed words from this great poet, T.S. Eliot … words that speak to me of this paradox of life that has to do with simplicity and greatness and active, while at the same time, passive engagement with the world:
To arrive at where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.
Forza dear graduates! Sempre Avanti con Don Bosco!
References:
Barron, Robert (1998). And Now I see: A Theology of Transformation. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company.
Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1971). Four quartets. New York: Harcourt Publishers.
Robinson, Elaine A. (2004). These Three: The Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press.
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