Responsible citizenship: With what?

Manila Bulletin

SWIMMING AGAINST THE CURRENT
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Responsible citizenship: With what?
Fri Jan 27,2006
Jesus P Estanislao

IF the end goal of responsible citizenship is to make every Filipino happy, then what means should we use to obtain it?

The means we have been focusing on have largely been economic. We have to raise our level of efficiency and productivity so we can compete everywhere. Being competitive would enable us to generate many jobs and much higher levels of income. Our GDP per person would keep rising, and in a sea of wealth and affluence, we would all be much happier.

To be sure, economic means are important. Without them we would not get anywhere. But they are not the ultimate weapons. Underlying them and giving them their clout and effectiveness are other means that are much deeper since they involve our spirit, our heart, and our mind, where ultimately the struggle for development is won or lost.

What are these deeper means involving the spirit, heart, and mind? Furrow, written by a sage and a saint, points to them and encourages us as responsible citizens to use them assiduously. It is best that we reflect on them in the current context of our country.

* Prayer connects each one of us directly with God, who is the source of all strength and inspiration in our personal struggle to develop our talents and realize our potentials.

* Work enables us to be productive. In the process, it also gives us many opportunities to improve ourselves and to reach out to others so in solidarity with them we can team up for the improvement of every facet of the environment in our country and in the world around us.

* Struggle is the constant instrument that we all need to apply even in the discharge of the small, routine, ordinary duties of each day. Since it is a constant, it eggs us on to keep going and to keep fighting. It asks us to train the spotlight of self-examination on ourselves many times during the day, and most certainly upon beginning and ending each day.

* Suffering necessarily comes with the territory. There is no escaping from it. But there is always a positive dimension to it: It shapes and strengthens us; it makes us tough and fit for even bigger struggles ahead as we move up the pathway towards higher levels of development.

* Penance recognizes that our feet are made of clay and that we commit mistakes and misdemeanors, both big and small. It enables us to squeeze great value out of sufferings and having to endure difficulties and setbacks: These can be offered up, in patience, and with a thirst for reconciliation with all those we have offended; above all with God against whom we have sinned.

All these means do shape our attitude. They give flesh to our values so these are converted, in practice, into virtues. It is virtues, multiplied across our land, practiced by millions of our fellow citizens, that in the end build our nation. They are the bricks with which we can put up a great edifice for our nation. They are the constituents of the greatness of our people.

We should give due importance to these means even as we try with all our might to use the economic means that can be forged through the values and virtues that come out of these much deeper means for nation-building.