Australian Jesuit sees a broad crisis of ‘mattering’

Rowena Orejana — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 01:49:38 +0000

By practising your humanity, you are living your Christianity.

This was the message of Australian Jesuit priest Fr Jamie Calder in his talk entitled “Christian Mission” on February 29 in Palmerston North.

Fr Calder is a theology lecturer and practising psychologist, whose clinical specialisation is broadly in men’s mental health.

“If you wish to practise your Christianity, first, practise your humanity. If you want to be a Christian, be a human first. The two go hand in hand,” he said.

Fr Calder said that, in Australia, as in most places in the world, there is currently a crisis of “mattering”.

“People wonder who they matter to. They wonder if what they do is important and matters to others. And I want to say to you, Christianity has had at its heart, the medicine for this for centuries and centuries,” he said.

Fr Calder said what God has done with the Incarnation of Jesus was “he has tied Christianity to humanity itself by becoming human”.

The crisis of mattering is happening because “we use difference to alienate”.

“They’re different from us. We don’t see the humanity, we see the differences,” he said.

Fr Calder said, when fear strikes, we do not respond in accord with who we are, but with our “false self”, the one who thinks we can manage on our own.

But he said, God is showing us the direction that we need to take.

“God’s direction is the giveaway. What is God doing? Becoming human. We are not human beings trying to be spiritual. We are spiritual beings trying to be human. Our natural gifted endowment is spiritual. We’re looking for a way to express that now humanly,” Fr Calder said.

In the Incarnation, Fr Calder said, God “shows us that the fullness of divinity is to be found in a human being and the fullness of humanity is only glimpsed in the reality of God”.

“Now that’s an extraordinary claim. That’s like saying, well, you know, God and us, we all have one thing in common. We’re all human. It’s so radical,” he said.

“We are saying that, in Christ, we see the full humanity and the full divinity. And while they are never separated, they are never confused. They are never in competition with each other.”

What this means, he stressed, is that we are always in the presence of God.

“The divine life is now permanently present in our humanity. All divine dealings are now on the human level. Your relationship with your barista, your relationship with your mechanic, your relationship with your partner, your lover, your life partner, your grandchildren, their teachers, your relationships with the pastor, with the priest, with the minister, your relationship with the people around you, is the theatre of God’s revealing,” Fr Calder explained.

This union, though, needs trust, belonging and forgiveness.

Again, he stressed, “the Christian spiritual pathway towards God is the pathway of being human. If you want to practise your Christianity, practise your humanity. There is no way to God. God is the way.”

The talk can be found on the diocesan website: http://www.pndiocese.org.nz/christian-mission

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How Christianity can save capitalism

Michael Otto — Wed, 14 May 2014 21:27:51 +0000

by PETER GRACE
AUCKLAND — Young Catholics in business can help strengthen morality in the world by “loving thy neighbour”, according to retired engineer, businessman and company director Peter Menzies.

Peter Menzies

Mr Menzies was the speaker at the April 9 meeting of Catholic Young Professionals in Auckland. Mr Menzies’ talk was titled “How Christianity can save capitalism”.
He set the scene by talking about individual and corporate greed and dishonesty, as well as government intrusion into areas of morality.
Then he talked about how the answer was, in essence, “Love thy neighbour”.
“So what’s wrong with capitalism, with the free market, at the moment?” he asked.
The Global Financial Crisis of 2007 arose more from powerful banking groups selling valueless mortgages, he said. Beneath that was dishonesty.
Likewise, the Libor (London InterBank Operating Rate) scandal arose when British banks colluded to make dishonest profits.
New Zealand was fortunate to escape, Mr Menzies said, although we had the bad practice here of paying bank staff to lend money. Globalisation had led to a lot of transfer of wealth and knowledge, and to huge sums paid to people sitting at the top of organisations.
“Directors won’t stand their ground and demand that remuneration be much flatter.”
Intrusion
In addition, we have seen inappropriate government intrusion into areas of moral norms. Mr Menzies reminded his audience of what Mother Teresa said about abortion — that it is the source of violence in the Western world.
“But when she said that, I thought, ‘That’s a big call, Mother, and I will have to think about it’.”
But, he said, imagine a young woman finding herself pregnant with an unwanted baby. In such cases, he said, almost all women know they are carrying a baby. The baby’s father tells the young woman the
baby will ruin things for her. “So he knows it’s not just
tissue.” And the wider circle of parents and friends
in many cases encourage abortion.
“They all know it’s a baby.” They know they are taking part “in murder”.
“And what does that do to the rest of their lives, to their respect for human beings, to the unborn. And that’s what Mother Teresa meant,” Mr Menzies said.
Likewise, Western society pushes artificial contraception — even though it presents risks to women’s health, including cancer — when there is natural family planning, which respects the natural processes of a woman’s body. It is also very successful in helping
infertile women to conceive.
“Yet government will not even talk about offering this through the health service.”
And government intrusion into people’s private lives encourages lifestyles rather than a basic benefit.
“We have got beneficiaries travelling and we have developed an entitlement attitude . . . .”
Change
Mr Menzies suggested his listeners, as active Christians, could help change these problems.
Each of us, he said, is a unique person God created out of love. And in embodying each one, he created in us a desire to return that love back to God.
“We can guarantee when you are dealing with people, within all of them there’s a deep-seated desire to love God, to be good.”
That is the approach he used in running organisations and trusting people, he said.
Because if an organisation is run based on trust, and staff are given the opportunity to do good, spectacular results can follow. “Jesus said, ‘Love thy neighbour’.”
The other thing to understand, Mr Menzies said, is that the Ten
Commandments are not a list of “Don’ts”. They are “Don’t hurt
yourself”.
For example, “Honour your father and mother”. If we don’t do
that, we are going to hurt ourselves. “So where does all of this take you in working in enterprises and management?” he asked.
“Modern business management focuses on one thing that really
matters, and that’s to capture the skills and hearts of employees.”
But if we look at government balance sheets, we won’t find anything
on them to do with what that kind of thing.
The “Love thy neighbour” culture is fundamental. “You know how to
capture these personal, essential attributes of people. Show your
neighbour how to love. . . . Have great confidence that they want to
do that.”
Christianity
Successful organisations are about taking a big chunk of Christianity and putting it in their group.
“And you have got to get involved in the group, and that’s the big
challenge.”
As managers, Mr Menzies said, the key is to get staff to think about
better ways to do things.
“It’s transformational, and it’s Christianity. Think about the customer, give the customer a better product. So this is the challenge you have got.” It’s all about serving, he said, and that includes chief executive officers. A good CEO is a servant.
“Think about how much of it is Christianity . . .
it’s your suppliers, it’s the marketplace you are serving — and love thy neighbour.”
What about the Government overreaching and intruding and rewriting moral norms?
“If you are selling into a community that has solid family structures, good values . . . it’s a lot easier, so it’s got to be important to you. And the children who are coming out of that community to work in your organisation, you should want to come as wellrounded individuals to contribute to your team.”
Conversely, if society has many dysfunctional families and unstable marriages, “a big part of your workforce will be affected, so you have got to interested”.
Depopulation
Consider Japan, he said, the most indebted nation on Earth. Japan’s domestic economy is very inefficient and the nation has a shrinking population.
“Every year there are hundreds and thousands of less Japanese. And they don’t let people in. And so here they are pouring billions of dollars still, and stimulating an inefficient economy.”
The elephant in the room, Mr Menzies said, is abortion. “Young Japanese women don’t want children.” There is no business in the world that caters for fewer customers. “No one in the government in Japan will talk about abortion, will talk about the loss of population. So they have got this enormous debt . . . and shrinking
base to pay for it.”
Similarly, the elephant in the room in Western Europe is abortion,
and they don’t want to talk about it.
Korea has woken up to what is going on and is paying people to
have children. “They have completely changed around. Russia
under Putin has suddenly realised that they have got to populate or
perish.”
Abortion has destroyed many countries, Mr Menzies said. “And
you are going to be in these businesses, and you have the opportunity to talk about it. . . . You can start a conversation about growing our population.”
A secondary benefit of a growing population is that nations with
full employment can have lower tax rates.
“You will generate wealth so much more if you aren’t pouring
money into welfare programmes that really aren’t highly successful.”
Social welfare under the state has an inherent difficulty, even
though it’s well intended. It can support the lifestyle of someone
who is taking “my” money. “There’s no love there. It’s purely a mechanical relationship.” Beneficiaries are trapped in their lives and need help.
He had had quite a bit to do with charitable organisations over
the years, Mr Menzies said. And he had learned that if you are
paying money into not-for-profit organisations, you always look to see if there are volunteers there. “If you don’t have this, you won’t succeed.”
Inspiration
Again it comes back to the motivation, of “loving thy neighbour”.
“Business has the means to get the best out of people.” In Britain, the idea of business taking control of welfare in their country is getting taken up by committed people and growing rapidly.
“You have got to reform the market by reforming the society you live in . . . and it’s based on the understanding that everybody wants to do good.”
Years ago he was on a project digging a tunnel.“Tunnels are very dangerous, and you have got people who get a rhythm going.” There are three shifts, but the three shifts develop competition as to who
digs the most in their shift.
“There comes a time when you can’t stop [it] because the competition between the shifts is so intense and the guys do it because they want to be the best.” That happens even though, by and large,
they don’tget paid more as a result.
“I exhort you to go out and to impress the world. It’s true. People want to do good. People want to be trusted and you can help them get there.”

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Australian Jesuit sees a broad crisis of ‘mattering’

How Christianity can save capitalism