Mass Readings Audio
https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2021-10-31-usccb-daily-mass-readings
Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 31, 2021
Welcome to the one hundred and eighty-eighth episode of By Your Life. Thank you for joining me. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life. If you haven’t already, please subscribe via your favorite podcast app, or on the right side of the page so I can send you notifications when each new episode is posted. And please forward to a friend you think would benefit from By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It is my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace, and to trust that it is good for business. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
Virtual World, Real Profits
In this edition, we will reflect on the readings for the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. This week, Facebook announced that the company changed its name to Meta to reflect growth opportunities in online digital realms known as the metaverse. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Mark Zuckerberg has long imagined a virtual world where people work, play and interact. Now he’s preparing to spend billions of dollars and years of effort to make that a reality so Facebook Inc. can prosper. Mark Zuckerberg said, “If you’re in the metaverse every day, then you’ll need digital clothes and digital tools and different experiences. Our goal is to help the members reach a billion people and hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce.”
Facebook is not the only company investing billions in the virtual world. Videogame companies and other tech giants also are racing to develop their metaverse platforms and establish early dominance in what could become a big moneymaker and permanently change the way people interact with each other.
As I read this news, I couldn’t help but wonder why we would want to permanently change the way people interact with each other? Why would we want to take real personal interaction and move it into a fake virtual world? I wondered if the prosperity of Facebook and other tech giants would come at the expense of the welfare of humankind.
Real World, Real Love
So, you may be wondering what all of this has to do with our readings from this Sunday. In the Gospel, Jesus responds to the scribe’s question about which is the greatest commandment saying, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. he second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk 12:29-31) How are we to love our neighbor as ourselves in a virtual world?
In his address this month to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, the Holy Father Pope Francis said, “It is clear that technology can be a tool for good, and truly it is a tool for good, which permits dialogues such as this one, and many other things, but it can never replace contact between us, it can never substitute for a community in which we can be rooted and which ensures that our life may become fruitful.” In other words, a virtual community can never replace true community and it will never make our lives fruitful. But can it be used for good?
In an opinion article about The Ethics of Realism in Virtual and Augmented Reality on the Frontiers website, the authors pointed out that the Golden Rule, which is Jesus’ message to “love your neighbor as yourself,” is also a part of most religions and philosophical traditions and can be thought of as a fundamental human moral imperative. They wrote that “The first and most positive aspect of virtual reality (VR) is that it is possible to give people the experience of the Golden Rule in operation. VR can place people virtually in the body of another” therefore virtually enabling them to walk a mile in the other person’s shoes.
Virtual World, Real Sin
The authors continued by posing the question of whether the Golden Rule should apply to fictional virtual characters given the fact that VR enables an individual to interact with virtual characters with more realism. Or in other words, is it wrong to do immoral acts in VR? This idea is explored in a play called “The Nether” (2013) by Jennifer Hayley, where in a fully immersive virtual world a man engages in pedophilia. When confronted by the police in reality (in the play), he argues that this is a safe way to realize his unacceptable drives without harming anyone at all. But I would argue that he is harming someone and that someone is himself.
The Frontiers article points out a number of important ethical questions regarding VR technology and it raises a number of issues of importance to VR industry, practitioners, and for regulatory authorities to consider. Now that VR is about to become a tool widely used in society, these issues may become pressing problems.
Real World, Real Challenges
In our Gospel, Jesus is clear that we must address these issues from the perspective of love of neighbor. In that same World Meeting of Popular Movements address, Pope Francis said, “In the name of God, I ask the technology giants to stop exploiting human weakness, people’s vulnerability, for the sake of profits without caring about the spread of hate speech, grooming, fake news, conspiracy theories, and political manipulation.”
But the Holy Father didn’t just call out the tech companies. He pleaded “in the name of God,” to great pharmaceutical laboratories, financial groups and international credit institutions, mining, oil, forestry, real estate, and agribusiness industries, great food corporations, arms manufacturers and dealers, telecommunications giants, the media, powerful countries, governments in general, and politicians of all parties to care for people, the environment, and work for the common good. Every one of us has an obligation to love each other as ourselves.
Jesus recognized that the scribe answered “with understanding” when he said that honoring God’s commandments “is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mk 12:33) Do we have the same understanding? Or are we pouring our hearts, minds, and strength, billions of dollars, and years of effort into generating burnt offerings instead of living love?
Real World, Real Values
In business, success is measured in terms of profits and personally, most of us toil every day for something that has no worth from an eternal perspective. Day in and day out we measure our success in terms of dollars and cents when God is more interested in how we love him and our neighbor.
Now, I know that we all need financial resources to support ourselves and our families and companies need profits to serve customers, pay employees and reward investors. But are living according to God’s commandments and profitability (personal or corporate) mutually exclusive propositions? Are these two diametrically opposing forces? Not if you are a values-centered person working in a core values-centered organization.
Living according to God’s commandments and profitability are not mutually exclusive propositions if you are a values-centered person in a values-centered organization.Most companies have core values. At least, they say they do. Far fewer honor them, day in and day out, even when it hurts their bottom line. These are values-centered companies who recognize their core values are non-negotiable. What is it that drives these values-centered companies to act this way?
Real-World Keys to Success
Before writing The Value of Core Values, I interviewed dozens of CEOs who were recommended to me because they led companies that were successful because they lived their core values. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular and I didn’t know what I would find. I just wanted to hear and share their stories.
Although each company had its unique set of core values, I discovered that there were things they all had in common. Five keys, if you will, to their success. Each of these elements was important and dependent on the others. The “five keys” are 1) own your values, 2) define them 3) share them 4) institutionalize them, and 5) honor them. As I reflected on Sunday’s Scripture, I recognized these same five keys (to own, define, share, institutionalize, and honor) were presented throughout the readings and they apply to us as individuals as much as they do to organizations. If we want to love God with all our heart, all our understanding, and all our strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves, these five keys are important to our success.
In the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses encourages the Israelites to “own” the commandments as their own when he said, “Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.” (Dt 6:6) Have you taken the Great Commandment to heart? Do you “own” it? That is, does love of God and love of neighbor guide all of your decisions and behaviors?
To answer this question, we must understand what behaviors these words reflect. To that end, Moses “defined” what the Great Commandment meant in terms of behaviors. He explained, “Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (DT 6:5) In other words, 100% committed, self-giving love.
In the Gospel, Jesus repeats the scripture we heard in the first reading when He said, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mk 12:29-30) The Great Commandment had been “shared” down throughout the centuries and Jesus had memorized it and so did the scribe. They shared this core principle of life. Organizations that are values-centered are constantly and consistently sharing their values in conversations and in writing. They are revisited in meetings, training, and in one-to-one conversations. The individuals in these companies know the core values. They have memorized them and understand what they mean.
Even when we know and understand the values, living them can be hard. In business, institutionalizing the values means that the company has support systems, structure, policies, and procedures that help employees honor the values. The second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews gives us insight into how we are “supported” in living the commandments through Christ, for “he lives forever to make intercession for them.” (Heb 7:25) It can be hard to love our neighbor, especially those we find most annoying. But, we have an advocate in the Holy Spirit and all the support we need if we just turn to Jesus and ask for help.
Finally, none of this matters if we don’t honor the commandments. This is why Moses said, “keep, throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you and be careful to observe them.” (Dt 6:2) The values-centered companies I interviewed all had a process of self-evaluation when it came to honoring their values, and we should too.
If you’ve failed, which you undoubtedly have from time to time, did you make it right? Just as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that the high priest “offer[s] sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people,” (Heb 7:27) we must admit our failings and do what needs to be done to make it right. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a great way to receive the grace we need to make it right.
Eternal World, Real Rewards
And this is the point of today’s readings, to honor the Great Commandments. Moses tells the people about the benefits of keeping the commands. The value of honoring God’s commandments is “that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Dt 6:3) I found the same was true of the values-centered companies. They were prosperous.
I’m not proposing a false “prosperity gospel.” In business, living by core values won’t exempt you from economic downturns, troublesome personnel issues, unreasonable customers, or other challenges. But adherence to values will allow you to weather these and other storms with calm confidence. You will be more likely to prosper because you will be operating within a solid framework of the right priorities.
Living according to God’s commandments and profitability (personal or corporate) are not mutually exclusive propositions. But profits are not the thing to be valued. Doing so only gets in the way of loving God and neighbor which are the keys to earthly success and eternal rewards as well.
Let’s ask God for help. Heavenly Father, you have given us the keys to success in life in the commandments you have given us. Help us to honor your commandments in all of our life, at home, at work, at play, so that in all that we do we may honor you by our lives.
May God bless you abundantly this week as you become a force of love at home and in your workplace and may you glorify the Lord by your life.
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