|
|
Competence
|
||
Father Goose's Nursery Other posts: In my father's house, there are many rooms.
|
|
Essay read at a prayer activity held in honor of St. Ignatius. The general theme given to me was competence. In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius teaches us that the evil spirit is shrewd and cunning. He says that the enemy is like a commander who does its research, investigating our virtues and attacking us at our weakest points. When we begin to boldly confront temptations to do wrong, the enemy adjusts and tempts under the appearance of making us do something good, albeit a good which God is not asking us to do. The evil spirit is very good at what it does. It is in the very nature of those who are tempted to do evil that they invest much thought and careful deliberation to the consideration of innovative malice. Much thought must have gone into dagdag-bawas, whether widespread or not, on both the national and local levels. Much thought is invested in cooking up schemes for corruption without getting caught. Unfortunately it is the tendency of good people to think that good intentions are enough to counter systematic malice. That is why, for example, social involvement tends to be run on emotionalism and tradition rather than the application of our professional talents. We do spend a lot of intellectual energy trying to figure out our everyday concerns, especially regarding financial security and career advancement. Maybe it would be good if we spend as much time and energy considering how we can use our gifts to communicate the Gospel to the people we encounter. Maybe it would be good to ask ourselves if we spend as much time and energy considering how our actions and our disciplines will help move this country forward. All of us, whether we be certified or aspiring social scientists, natural scientists, business people, or scholars in the humanities; whether we be staff, students, teachers, or administrators need to develop a clear sense of how what we do contributes to improving our country’s quality of life. Maybe it would be good to ask ourselves how we can further develop our God-given gifts so that we may render a service of even greater worth. The source of our collective inspiration, St. Ignatius went to school in order to enhance his own gifts. I think we can expect no less from ourselves. In the end St. Ignatius might have taken a familiar saying about it being enough for good people to do nothing in order for evil to triumph and turned it into an Ignatian principle: it is enough for good people not to use and enhance their gifts in order for evil to triumph. Maybe it would be good to ask ourselves how we can make use of and develop our God-given gifts to help us in the attainment of the end for which we are created: to praise, reverence and serve God and by this means to save our nation, our world and our collective souls.
|
|
|
Contact me at [email protected] |
|||