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RWS 544 April 28, 2013
5th Sunday of Easter
Gospel: John 13:31-33;34-35
35 It is by your love for one another,
that everyone will recognize you as my
disciples.
By Bishop
Precioso D. Cantillas, SDB, DD
Loving one another is very
challenging for everyone and everywhere, especially and particularly in the
workplace. Workers in the manufacturing industry— where things, machines and
objects are what human workers relate to most of their working hours—tend to
develop an impersonal attitude which makes loving others difficult. The
technician who is familiar with the precise and efficient performance of his
gadgets, tools and equipment would not easily tolerate failures and mistakes of
his co-workers or others he deals with.
He tends to become like a robot, incapable of loving others and
understanding his own weaknesses in other activities.
Those who work in the service
industries, who would spend time and energies catering to people’s needs, may
not necessarily love the people they serve. Most of these workers admit they
are simply doing their jobs, for which they expect to be properly compensated.
They mostly work for themselves who have a host of needs and wants to be
filled, not for the satisfaction of having loved or cared for another person,
much less of having fulfilled a command of Jesus. Yet, the challenge of loving
one another in the workplace and elsewhere is not impossible to meet; Jesus did
it and His disciples do it too.
At work the urgency of becoming
true disciples of Jesus is more than ever felt. While production of goods and
services is what the world is looking for, everyone’s effort at work to be a
person with the heart of Jesus is what the world needs. When we start to think
always of the good of others rather than our very own, we behave like Christ,
making the workplace a better place to live in.
The measure of fidelity
By Teresa R.
Tunay, OCDS
Today’s
gospel brings to mind the workplace where material compensation is not the most
important thing for a worker: the “vineyard of the Lord.” This includes parish and diocesan
offices, Church-run facilities like schools, orphanages, welfare agencies, and
all other organizations that do ministries in the name—and supposedly for the
love—of God. Such workplaces may
or may not be that demanding when it comes to academic attainment of their
ordinary workers but all their workers are certainly expected to witness to the
reality and truth of the religion they profess.
People
will tend to more readily forgive boorish, incompetent, or discourteous
employees elsewhere than those who work in the Lord’s vineyard. Somehow people expect these “vineyard
workers” to be more patient, joyful, kind—possessing all the “fruits of the
Holy Spirit.” Generally, the more
highly placed the worker is, the more exposed to interaction with clients, the
more demanding the people become about his or her behavior and manners. In fact, people are not so impressed by
titles or academic degrees of these workers as they are by the Christ-likeness
of their behavior. Of what use are
the PhDs tailing a nun’s name—or the STD, STL, and more PhDs added to a
priest’s name—if they conduct themselves like coldhearted career people? It will be easier to see the Christ in
the nun who cheerfully scrubs the kitchen floor or the priest who lovingly
listens to the confession of the almost senile elderly wards than in the
“servant leaders up there” who feel entitled to the adoration that people
reserve for God.
After
all is said and done, it is still Jesus’ way of love that measures our fidelity
to the Lord.
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