A LEADER FINDS A VISION

How important is a vision? The Bible says, “Write it down.” It is to be written in order that wit will be remembered; it should be easy to recall; easy to repeat to the young and old. It will be easy to pass on to others and handed down for the morrow. Inscribe it on tablets. Carve it on some hard material: engrave it on stone! Man must remember where he is going that is why a vision as a direction towards the future must ever be recalled.

Life is always to look forward. Hence, no matter how ugly was the past a person or a community in dealing with the desire of both leader and the flock is to proceed to where their vision originally directs them. This is the sterling quality of people with a vision: they are not disarmed by their past.

King David, Israel’s greatest king, whose victorious exploits were sung by the Israelites, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1Samuel 18:6-7). They danced to his poems (Psalms) and songs. Given the successes of this man, however, he was also known as one of the greatest sinners in the Bible because he had taken advantage of his position, his successes and his power to force people to give in to his lust and over his crimes with premeditated murder. He was a failure and a sinner but David believed that in life it was God who beckoned and guided him. When confronted by Nathan, the prophet, for having murdered Uriah to cover up his adultery with Batsheba, “Why did you show contempt for Yahweh by doing what displeases him?” (II Samuel 12:9). David did not allow his sins to cripple him. He repented and said, “I have sinned against Yahweh (IISamuel 12:13). “I fasted and wept because I kept thinking … perhaps Yahweh will take pity on me and the child will live” (IISamuel 12:22). David never lost his vision of what God wanted him to be and where God wanted him to lead His people.

A man may see the wickedness of people or leaders and could see only corruption, murders, thievery, dishonesty, the uncared for poor peoples, homeless and hungry people, rich people interested only in money and more wealth, very wealthy individuals and business groups eying every election only to select whom to manipulate (puppet-ize), wholesale murder to stay in power, maintaining a family dynasty, making politics a favorite industry, etc. and more etcs. Every national election in our country becomes a repetition of the long litany of dishonesties, lies, empty promises, vote-buying, cheating and the rest everyone already knows of.

Issues? What issues are being debated in a national election? Fake medical reports, sizes of posters, money owed and money disowned, anomaly here or there, etc.

Has there been a debate on the perennial and urgent issues, like poverty, housing for the homeless, programmed and regulated internal migration or what to do with its urban counterpart (ubiquitous squatting), work and employment creativity, location of work zones, reduction of corrupt practice or its social correlative, immediate (urgent) and remote ecological programs (urban and national), etc.

In the first section of the book, Political Order in Changing Societies, by Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University, the author situated his observance on the Philippines in the part entitled, “Political Order and Political Decay.” The study quoted from George E. Taylor (The Philippines and the United States: Problems of Partnership, p. 157). “Politics is a major industry for the Filipinos; it is a way of life. Politics is the main route to power, which, in turn, is the main route to wealth … More money can be made in a shorter time with the aid of political influence than by other means.” This can explain why so many families, including some individuals, run for office in the Philippines and remained there ever since.
Professor Huntington continued, “In all societies the scale of corruption (i.e. the average value of private goods and public services involved in a corrupt exchange) increases as ne goes up the bureaucratic hierarchy or political ladder … In some societies, the incidence of corruption seems to remain constant or to increase as one goes up the political hierarchy. In terms of frequency as well as scale, national legislators are more corrupt than local officials; high level bureaucrats are more corrupt than low level ones; cabinet ministers are most corrupt of all; and the president or top leader the most corrupt among them.”(Samuel Huntington, p. 67)

What this Harvard professor discovered in his study, we already know and have experienced. Shall we only talk about this until the next election like we always do? Or is there something we can do about it even without the immediate elections?

No matter how much evil exists in our present society, no matter how openly discussed and publicized evil is—and it is true—nevertheless, a good leader who shares the apostolic vision with the community does not lose hope. The same is said of every citizen who shares a desired future borne of faith in God and trust of fellowmen. Hope is the Christian virtue that attunes us to the happiness that God has placed before us to achieve. Hope in God “inspires men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it opens up[ his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity” (CCC 1818).

In reality, our destiny depends on how well we can see an authentic vision. In one of our earlier conferences, we said that an apostolic vision has the following characteristics: “direction, motivational, rooted in the Bible, permanent, actually and potentially embracing all situations, realistic and achievable, connected also to our human desires and experiences of success and even (especially) of one’s failures and disappointments, brief but compendious and evaluative.” How the vision is going to influence a person or a community will depend on how generously imaginative s/he will be. Vision is pursued vigorously more than an imagination can only be exercised. Once a person loves where he is going, the very journey becomes a virtue; and the actual process of traveling becomes a model of arrival. As soon as the Filipino likes to become united with his brother and sister, the moment s/he believes that the good of everyone is possible, even though the idea does not come from him or her (which is very difficult for the Pinoy to take), but if it happens, (and this is what we hope and work for), then we will not only have a family of families but a nation who gives what needs to be shared. A nation where there will be less hungry and homeless people is not only possible, already it is in the making; let us not reverse the trend by resisting good ideas and replacing them with selfish ones. Let us continue our vision.

A perceptive writer once wrote that “a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral” (Saint Exupery, Flight to Arras). If in the pile of corruption, thieveries and violence, etc.’s mentioned earlier, one man or a group of people will see “people singled out by God’s choice, in Jesus, to become persons with special dignity as humans, imaging the goodness of God, leading them to full humanity and life (fullness of life) through a process where everyone mutually shares in the generous submission to the plan (will) of God (that includes “disciplined pain”) in order to arrive at that plenitude of life in the power of God’s own Spirit, indicating how everyone shares, instead of competing or battling others, in the manner Mary taught Jesus simplicity of life in Nazareth,” then a people can be united as a community of families that is worthy of the name, “nation” of God’s People.??? What does this remind us of? Where have we heard of this before?

Having seen the problems that restrict our people, we must together believe ever more that the building up of our nation and keeping of our people as one, addressing the same common problems is not solved by a national election. We have now entered the envied zone of electronic automatic voting machines not even available to other democratic nations. And yet, a responsible, honest and respectable election is not fully assured by these modern gadgets. Automation only means faster counting and more difficult cheating. Like any machine, the automatic voting machine is an indifferent innocent tool; it is “trash in and trash out.” Nationwide everybody’s attention is focused on that machine—PCOS. What is important is the matured and selfless decision every citizen puts into that automatic machine.

This is the purpose of leadership with a vision. This is the ultimate responsibility of citizenship pursuing a common vision. What belongs to everyone is the collective task of authentic nation building, involving everyone who has a stake in the country”sdestiny, so brutally prejudged by others. We do not blame those who want to predict that theuglier picture of the Filipino is what is profitable to print and preach to the rest of the world; after all, they have their own stake in it, politically or otherwise.

The Church has something to offer that will enhance the dignity of every Filipino, encourage him or her to become citizens of a country enriched by the truth and virtues of a responsible human being, dignified by love for God and love and respect for everyone, learned and rehearsed in the virtues learned in Jesus, able to learn citizenship with enlivened responsibility (through Paschal Experience understanding) spelled as disciplined pain. These are all contained in the living apostolic vision we are trying to learn and how to live.

Church leaders, religious and lay, believe in the pure intention of achieving fullness of being in community life on earth (including politics, economy and social activity) and proceeding to where God, the creator, has willed us to be. It must be said here that good intention and believing a vision is not enough to bring the development desired by most. The leader needs a following in order for him to share his vision with others. On the other hand need is greater for a community to have a leader who will underwrite and express with authority the group”s aspired direction. In short, in the matter of journeying to development and progress towards “fullness of life” everyone will need each other.

Given the chaotic situation today in the development and people and the task of our nation building, it becomes more evident to us that the catechesis on the vision towards fullness of life is a “necessary lifetime course” of instruction for every responsible citizen and believer, especially for those who live with a better understood desired vision. There must be a lifetime course on responsible citizenship based on the belief on the Transcendent, giving roots to every person’s response to life, keeping in mind age, position, ability, and responsibility.

The vision must be clear! If it is not, it must be clarified, described and explained. This inescapable task belongs to the leader, who must be encouraged by those who believe and belong to the same cause of desiring a better life for fellowmen and a unified nation where the ideal remains, “everyone cares for absolutely every anyone,” until the “fullness of life” is mutually shared by all. Leaders must feel that the vision is understood and desired by all; no one lags behind. If the vision is clear, then the studied approach to satisfying the needs will be precise. There must be mutual encouragement and support between the community of believers and their leaders, between society and its leaders. A well prepared election cannot guarantee a unified people. An honest election does not even guarantee a change in the perspective, values and behavior of people. But a well understood and valued vision summarizes to anyone what s/he wants to be as human person, a citizen and as a believer.

The leader is also helped by his or her community to make the desiderata of the vision applicable to everyone, anywhere or at anytime. This is the meaning of the saying that an authentic vision is compendious (compact and comprehensive). It therefore belongs to a group of leaders, who, with imagination and daring, will “excavate and mine” the data existing and with the help of the believing community attach developmental and growth goals to the Christian, believer, citizen, worker, professional, etc.

A true leader knows that there are no short-cuts to development or even freedom, just as a good mentor, in or out of the classrooms, is convinced that “experience is the best teacher.” This brings us to the great lesson that even parents know in rearing their children, from infancy to adulthood: No one can learn the truth, or even begin to love, without leaving some space for mistakes. From past attempts at nation building(as also with person development) we have now accumulated many mistakes, enough mistakes to allow us to begin the dream anew—a reformulated vision from the mistakes of the past, the persistent dream of long ago, with the promise of an ever loving and guiding God, that all these desires for the better were implanted on each person, from time to time it was decided, that every man and woman who will walk on earth “will image the goodness of God” (Genesis 1:26).

It is claimed that there is no shortcut to any development of the individual person or even of a great nation. Even an honest election (together with the aid of automation) will not guarantee the birth of a truly developed free nation. The struggle, the zeal, the effort is a collective one, involving the assent and participation of all, the leaders and the led. This is the meaning of the saying that an authentic vision is compendious (compact and comprehensive). It therefore belongs to a group of leaders, who, with imagination and daring, will “excavate and mine” the data existing and with the help of the believing community attach developmental and growth goals to the Christian, believer, citizen, worker, professional, etc.

A true leader knows that there are no short-cuts to development or even freedom, just as a good mentor, in or out of the classrooms, is convinced that “experience is the best teacher.” This brings us to the great lesson that even parents in rearing their children, from infancy to adulthood: No one can learn the truth, or even begin to love, without leaving some space for mistakes. From past attempts at nation building (as also with person development) we have now accumulated many mistakes, enough mistakes, to allow us to begin the dream anew—a reformulated vision from the mistakes of the past, the persistent dream of long ago, with the promise of an ever loving and guiding God, that all these desires for the better were implanted on each person, from the time it was decided, that every man and woman who will walk on earth “will image the goodness of God” (Genesis 1:26).

After all those errors in serving people and nation building, we take the route of evangelization development as encouraged by our vision. To rush in a hurry (at nation building) without touching personal perspectives, without changing attitudes or purifying values is to confirm the Harvard studies about the Philippines that “politics is a major industry for the Filipinos” and the shortest way to “personal pagpapayaman.”

Our way is the way guided and accompanied by a vision that leads us slowly to fullness of life through a difficult but tried and assured way (Paschal Mystery way). Jesus with His Mother Mary is our co-pilgrim.