Whenever the idea of increasing the minimum wage is raised, the captains of Philippine industry are first to oppose and object. They raise the specter of widespread loss of jobs and paint scenarios of gloom and doom. No wonder then that when a bill was proposed in Congress many years ago to require owners of private corporations to share profits with their employees, they also registered their vigorous objection.
Compared with neighboring ASEAN countries, the Philippines has one of the worst income distribution patterns in this region. Nowhere else is it more true that in this blighted land, only the rich become richer and the poor get even poorer. Paradoxically, the Philippines is also the only Christian country in Southeast Asia, with nearly 90% of its citizens being baptized Roman Catholics.
From Chiara Lubich’s perspective, the Philippines is not just a Third World country in the sense of being materially underdeveloped. In the book, Essential Writings, the founder of the Focolare movement shares her thoughts on spirituality, dialogue and culture. She also calls attention to the fact that we are also “underdeveloped Christians” because we fail to live up to God’s commandment that we “love him with all one’s heart, mind, and strength”.
She says that according to Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila, both doctors of the Church, and Thomas Aquinas and Francis de Sales, “only those who have reached the full development of love could call themselves real Christians, Christians who are, so to speak, ‘actualized’.”
She raises the bar even further when she points out that “this conviction corresponds to the often little-understood words of the Master directed to everyone: ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48)”.
If Chiara Lubich were to mount a public podium today and talk about the Focolare movement’s concept of The Economy of Communion (EOC), she would be a most effective advocate of an alternative to a decadent and bankrupt global economic system.
Writing on Spirituality and the Economy of Communion Businesses, Lorna Gold outlined the key precept on sharing of profits that underpins the Focolare philosophy:
“The idea of businesses making profits and sharing them in three parts…was laden with assumptions about the nature of profits, and as a consequence, the way profits ought to be made. Since the heart of the Focolare revolves around the creation of spaces in which there are relationships founded on love – ‘Trinitarian relationships’ – the businesses has to reflect this spirit in everything that they did. Profits, therefore, could not be the result of efficiency savings borne out of exploitation, coercion or corruption – they had to be the result of a new relationship above all between the people within the businesses. The start of the EOC, therefore, also regarded the nature of the individual businesses themselves and the way that their profits were made.
According to the Trinitarian concept embedded in the philosophy of the Focolare’s Economy of Communion, the wealth (or profits) created by the enterprise is to be shared in three ways: a) reinvestment in the company; b) distribution to the poor and those in need; and c) to the community, by way of infrastructure that will promote the culture of giving --- model towns, publishing houses, formation centers.
In Essential Writings, which will be launched this weekend in Manila, Ms. Lubich emphasizes four points about the Economy of Communion: first, its aim or purpose; second, the “culture of giving” which is its hallmark; third, the “new men and women” who are mainly instrumental for managing this new economy; and fourth, the “schools of formation” that must be instituted for these same men and women.
She explains: “The aim of the Economy of Communion is hidden within its very name: it is an economy that has to do with communion among people and sharing of goods…Its aim…is to work toward unity and fraternity among the whole human family according to Jesus’ prayer to the Father: ‘May all be one’, to the point of becoming one heart and one soul through mutual charity.” Hence, the Focolare movement espouses among its members a “spirituality of unity.”
The culture of giving is “the antidote to the culture of having so dominant today”; in fact, it is this culture of unbridled grid that has spawned and accelerated the present global economic crisis. Such culture of giving is also a culture of love, says Ms. Lubich, “because the human person made in the image of God who is love, finds fulfillment precisely in loving, in giving.”
Her concept of loving and giving is quite pervasive as she points out that the Economy of Communion “does not ask us to love only the needy, but everyone.” Thus, she issues this clarion call: (“The EOC”) asks that we love all those who in one way or another are involved in the business.”
What does this mean in practical terms? She describes how this is to be done: “Let’s give always: give a smile, understanding, forgiveness, our listening; let’s give our intelligence, our will and our availability; let’s give our experience and skills. Give: let this be the word that gives us no rest.”
Specifically addressing men and women who hold positions of responsibility in the business sector, she quotes from St. Thomas Aquinas: “When for their personal benefit the rich consume the surplus necessary for the sustenance of the poor, they steal from them.” Then she states affirmatively: “A bit of charity, a few works of mercy, a small amount of surplus from individuals is not enough (to reach our goal); entire companies and businesses must freely put in common their profits.”
Will Ms. Lubich’s emphatic statements find resonance among the leaders of Philippine business? I don’t think so. Yet, I believe Ms. Lubich’s message needs to be proclaimed with urgency at this time of economic turmoil. A paradigm shift is clearly needed. Business leaders must begin viewing the real world with a new set of lenses.
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