Columnist’s note: I am yielding my space today to a thought piece by Fr. Jaime Achacoso.
BY FR. JAIME ACHACOSO, JCD
WHAT will happen is what has always happened in the past: samo samo. We need to change hearts and minds, starting in the academe — one student at a time, one class at a time. Too much energy is wasted in politics, while neglecting the formation of the body politic, one zoon politikon at a time. The most I expect from the present circus is that at least the dirty laundry is publicized: that could modify some hearts. But their minds are already a lost cause: we need to work with the new generation who are still on campus.
That’s why I’m in San Beda: this is the seedbed for a cultural revolution, the birth of the real Filipino — Christian, learned, virtuous and street-smart — that Rizal could only dream of.
We need to give the Bedan “ora et labora” a modern twist: not the monastic work and then pray or even vice versa. We need Filipinos who work prayerfully — “labora oratione” — in a unity of life where all his secular life is informed by his faith. That’s a tall order, but it’s the only way. An entire century of failure trying to do it another way proves my point.
The author is a professor at San Beda University’s Graduate School of Law.