By James L. Nolan

In this most solemn season of the Christian year, the question of loyalty takes on a cosmic dimension as we consider the fate of Our Lord at the hands of his friend and disciple, Judas Iscariot.

Perhaps nowhere in our society is the trait of loyalty as challenged as it is in the fast and fluid American workplace. I have regular conversations with people of faith in the business world, and the biblical accounts of Judas's fatal miscalculation never fail to stir the deepest feelings.

Some of their reactions might come as a surprise. At one recent gathering in Washington, we reflected on the passage in which Judas, wracked with guilt, takes the 30 pieces of silver he gained for betraying Jesus and tries to return the blood money to his new "friends," the high priests. Of course, they tell Judas to get lost.

"Look at how Judas found himself out of favor with what he thought was his new team," observed one business manager. Another confessed, "This is the first time I ever felt sorry for Judas. Here he left Jesus' inner circle to take up with the establishment. He thought he was accepted because he delivered Jesus to them as promised. But, his so-called new friends just turned their backs on him."

You don't have to dig very far down to find that these men and women aren't just talking about Judas. They're talking about life in corporate America.

Before the meeting, they read a Wall Street Journal article about investment advisors who pull down huge signing bonuses to leave their firms for new ones -- bringing their customers with them. Several talked about how they had been bitten by bright young professionals whom they trained and mentored, only to see them "jump ship" and go to work for competitors. "There is just no loyalty these days," said one participant.

Then, there is the hardest blow. Several men and women talked about giving the company all they had for 20 years or more (in some cases losing marriages and families), and then finding themselves out on the pavement after the firm was gobbled up in a merger or acquisition.

And, one executive confessed to what sounded like a lapse of loyalty. He was running the leading division of an industrial-machinery company, bringing his people along, getting them "invested" in the work. He promised them a great future together as members of his team. Then a headhunter called him and offered a lucrative opportunity with a competing organization. He took it -- "I had to consider my family even if it wasn't altogether fair [to the team]."

A month later, these business and professional people came together again for their regular meeting, and one CEO rushed in, looking a bit anxious. He had just flown in from a business trip, and said he hadn't intended to show up, but felt he had to, because of what he heard last month about loyalty.

All heads turned as he explained that he had just visited his manufacturing company's two facilities in St. Louis, where he announced a decision to close the plants. Given the bleak financial assessments, he and his top management felt they had no other choice. Nonetheless, he was troubled.

After the conversation about loyalty, he concluded that he personally had to break the news to employees. Most CEOs would have sent out a memo on Friday afternoon or put a human-resources manager on the plane. But this one said, "I had to look my people in the eye." Moreover, he was determined to carry out the closings in the most humane way possible. He made sure to provide employees with extended medical benefits and outplacement help. Where possible, he absorbed the laid off people elsewhere within the organization.

I don't know if shutting down the St. Louis facilities was the right decision. I do believe, however, that this CEO did what many others of his rank have failed to do, and what Judas failed to do. Instead of selling out to the "establishment" -- in this case business as usual -- he found and followed his moral compass. Realizing that business is a vocation, he grabbed hold of his responsibilities in an age of disappearing loyalty.

James L. Nolan is a former executive director of the Woodstock Business Conference, a program of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington. The Conference has chapters that meet monthly in 18 cities.