The World's Greatest Business

CEBU, Philippines - Legendary psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud called religion the world's greatest business. He also wrote: "The child is the father of the man," emphasizing the early years in a child's life to be very important. These two pronouncements by the expert have a connection, as we will see.

The importance of the early experiences of the child is the reason why in some schools today, early childhood education (Toddlers, Playgroups, Nursery, and Kindergarten) is offered prior to Grade One. It has led some quarters to assert: "Give me the first five years of a child's life and you may do with it as you like later."

A child is naturally awkward and clumsy. The result is that the mother or the babysitter would sternly correct or scold the little one for certain imperfections. The admonition often creates guilt feelings in the child's consciousness.

How to get rid of these guilt feelings? Religion comes to the rescue with its rules, regulations and practices. For us Roman Catholics, we do auricular confession or tell our sins to the priest in the confessional.

There is a feeling of relief after we have gone to confession or have received the Sacrament of Penance. And this is the only sacrament that a priest administers without receiving a single centavo. To think that it is the same unburdening at the confessional for which psychiatrists - that take after Sigmund Freud - are making thousands of dollars for listening to their clients lying on the couch!

If the priest does not make money from hearing confessions, from what source does he get rich? From Mass stipends ("pamisa") and from KBL ("Kasal, Bunyag, Lubong," meaning officiating wedding, baptismal, and funeral rites). This is the reason behind the saying, "Patay o buhi, sapi sa pari" - both the dead and the living contribute to the priest's earnings! What better business is there than that? (FREEMAN)