Last call?

The triple denial of Peter was later redeemed by his triple profession of love for Christ, and climaxed by Christ’s triple mission for Peter to reach out to others, especially the poor and the oppressed. "Feed my lambs . . . Tend my sheep . . . Feed my sheep." (From today’s Gospel incident, Jn. 21:1-19). This was THE way that Peter could prove his love for Christ, follow His footsteps, and be a leader – apostle of Christ’s people.

And so it is with us. In particular – our leaders in business, politics, and religion. But where are we now? We are plagued by the many conscienceless forms of denying Christ. In the context of our Gospel reading for today, let me single out just one – our socio-economic system which has resulted in our long-standing situation of social injustice.

Ruthless, liberal capitalism without a social conscience. This is the root cause of the abysmal gap between the very small minority rich and the very huge majority poor. Excessive monopoly of wealth in the midst of poverty. How can we tolerate the super-wealthy tycoons and the poorest of the poor breathing the same air and call ours a Christian nation? This is the height of denying the Christ. This is a thousand times more evil than the triple denial of Peter.

A moral conversion of heart is needed on the part of our socio-economic-political leaders. A radical change in the system – before it is too late – toward Christian Democratic Socialism.

This was the vision of the late Ninoy Aquino, after his own personal conversion while in prison.

"Capitalism must be corrected by anti-monopoly legislation, supplemented more positively by social welfare and security measures than now exist. Basic economic decisions must be made by the community – the government – and not by the private owners of the means of production. More efficient national economic planning must be adopted to husband our meager resources and bring the greatest good to the greatest number." (From Testament From A Prison Cell, 1988, p. 41-42).

On the part of the Church, the 1987 Encyclical Letter, On Social Concern, by Pope John Paul II, strongly denounces the abuses of both liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism. Instead, it explicitly advocates a more socialistic form of economic system. Unfortunately, the credibility of the Church seems to be rather weak, particularly because in the eyes of many, the Church has been rather slow in practicing what it preaches, starting from the Vatican, all the way to our Ateneo de Manila campus.

For instance, par. 31 of the same encyclical reads:

"Thus, part of the teaching and most ancient practice of the Church is her conviction that she is obliged by her vocation . . . to relieve the misery of the suffering, both far and near, not only out of her ‘abundance’ but also out of her ‘necessities’. Faced by cases of need, one cannot ignore them in favor of superfluous church ornaments and costly furnishings for divine worship; on the contrary, it could be obligatory to sell these goods in order to provide food, drink, clothing and shelter for those who lack these things. As has been already noted, here we are shown a ‘hierarchy of values’ – in the framework of the right to property – between ‘having’ and ‘being’, especially when the ‘having’ of a few can be to the detriment of the ‘being’ of many others."

A serious proposal was made by the Bishop of Malaga to sell the expensive Vatican treasures and use the money for the benefit of the poor. This would have been a powerful example for the rest of the Catholic world. The proposal was never acted upon.

Similarly, representations were made not to build the Ateneo University church at the height of our national economic crisis, and instead fund-raise the money for the benefit of the poor, since each unit in the university has a decent, adequate chapel of its own and a huge covered court for university affairs. Such representations were not heeded.

Persons are more important than possessions. Let us all relentlessly pray and work hard for the triple mission of Christ. "Feed my lambs . . . Tend my sheep . . . Feed my sheep."