Woodstock Report | Peter's Compass, and Ours

Peter's Compass, and Ours

[Woodstock Report, March 2006, No. 84]

How do men and women integrate their faith, family, and professional lives? How do they develop corporate cultures that reflect their religious values? How can they exercise a beneficial effect on society at large? These are among the questions that James L. Nolan pursued for seven years as director of the Woodstock Business Conference (WBC), and he undertook these reflections not primarily in the comfort of his office at Georgetown University, but among business people who gather monthly for prayer and reflection, as members of WBC chapters across the country.

After leaving Woodstock in 2000, Nolan began work on a book, Doing the Right Thing at Work: A Catholic's Guide to Faith, Business, and Ethics, released in December by St. Anthony Messenger Press. The book includes a five-point plan for "wholeness and integrity," a plan that emerged from those small-group encounters. And now, Nolan is back as a nonresident Woodstock fellow and national coordinator of the WBC. What follows is a version of a talk that Nolan delivered on January 24 at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

James L. Nolan

By James L. Nolan, Woodstock Fellow

Recent events, scandals, wars, and natural disasters have heightened our desire to grab onto what really counts, to focus on what is essential, basic in our lives. Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a profound sea change affecting all aspects of life: social, cultural, economic, and political. These changes are being played out all over the world. Prompted by the alienation and uncertainty of our age, people now more than ever want to find a reliable moral compass. They want to integrate their whole selves; integrate who they are with what they do. Some are coming to recognize the deep-seated drive within each one of us to use our talents, intelligence, and imagination for the greater good.

No one promised us it would be easy. Indeed, many harbor deep-seated doubts that we can even grasp what counts in this time of rapid change, shifting boundaries, and faint allegiances. They say it's impossible and stupid to try to lead an integrated, non-compartmentalized life in the business world and survive.

Here is some of what we are seeing in the world of work today:

The decline in loyalty, of the organizations toward the individuals and of workers toward their organizations. Everyone is a free agent now.

Notorious breaches of trust. Trust and trustworthiness seem to be mere museum pieces, relics of a golden past.

Diminished professionalism in the practice of law and medicine. We see sin and mismanagement in our Church.

Political life now routinely survives on opinion polls, slogans, slush funds, name-calling, and character assassination.

Individualism and selfishness seem to be elevated and rewarded, defeating teamwork and community.

My message is that it is possible to know and do the right thing at work, to lead a whole and integrated life. Toward the end, I will suggest a five-point program that people have found helps them along that path. But first, let me take you back to a conversation that illustrates - spiritually and theologically - what I am talking about.

The participants in this conversation gather regularly to consider various opportunities for and challenges to doing the right thing at work. On this occasion they were exploring what happens when a really benevolent business organization faces tough financial times - a question that has pertinence today. These people came from positions of responsibility in business, the professions, and government. They are members of a Woodstock Business Conference chapter. They meet to encourage each other to do the right thing at work.

Following regular practice, the group began by reading, reflecting silently upon, and then discussing a Scripture passage. This time the passage focused on St. Peter, always a favorite of the group, because he mirrors so well their very human aspirations, gifts, and failings. They began with a familiar scene, one reported in each of the four gospels. There in the high priest's courtyard, just as Jesus predicted it would happen, three times Peter denied knowing Jesus. Then, the rooster crowed. Peter failed to stand up for Jesus despite his earlier promises of undying fidelity.

Many agreed that Peter was in a "no win" situation. It was futile, they said. He was in no position to change things. "What could he do there, anyway?" "On the other hand," one cautioned, "that kind of rationalization is only too familiar to all of us. It is human to try to rationalize in order to get out of becoming involved in a mess."

They say it's impossible and stupid to try to lead an integrated, non-compartmentalized life in the business world and survive.

At one point, a very successful woman, who founded and grew a business that became and still is a leader in its field, said this:

It seems that Peter's story applies to each of us. We have similar fears, similar confusions. We are sometimes at a loss to know the right thing to do, particularly when we hit difficult times. Today, the question is how do we either find or re-find our moral compass when we need to act? There has to be a bridge somewhere.

Christ was Peter's "bridge" - He did not give up on Peter. Rather, He kept after him, asking Peter to affirm his love and commitment as he charged him to care for his flock.

In the end, Peter remembered, wept, repented, regained his moral compass, and returned to lead his community. He continued his close personal engagement with the risen Christ. When push came to shove, the values of the Lord, his community, and the people he loved guided his actions.

Peter's story, his whole story, does apply to us. We do have similar fears, similar confusions. We are sometimes at a loss to know the right thing to do when we need to act. We, too, can find or recover our moral compass the same way Peter did by remembering, weeping and repenting when that's called for, and then going back to work. We can do the right thing at work because we are sustained by the Lord and by our communities of love. Our communities of love can include our families, our friends, the people we work with and serve, and our faith community.

For Catholics, that faith community includes two thousand years of fellow followers of Christ with the Eucharist at the center. The foundation for this sustaining, nurturing, instructing, and challenging love is found in the love and confidence Christ has in each of us and in the hope and the gratitude that erupts in us from our realization and acceptance of Christ's love. St. Paul captured this in his letter to the Romans when he wrote:

And this hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts though the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Romans 5:5).

That day during the WBC conversation, the reflections upon Peter's story led participants to grapple with experiences, themes, and realities that are very familiar to us today in the work world. Among them: being scared and confused on occasion, confronting seemingly futile situations; standing up for what you believe at work when times are tough; the need for persistence after falling short; and the desire to regain one's moral compass.

Can we really keep on course to know and do the right thing in the middle of today's mess? Our faith tells us that it can be done - by finding God who is there at work with us. We can find God when we understand what we are really about when we work. For most of us it is at our work where we come to realize who we are. This is where we invest so much of our time and energy, where we learn - by doing - to know, choose, and do what is best. It is also true that this is the place where we can team up with God. God, who is already there, working in us as St. Paul said, moving us to work for the greater good. We are burning with desire for completeness, for wholeness. We are driven to integrate all of who we are including, particularly, who and what we are at work. We want to find God as we live our ordinary lives, doing our ordinary work.

We can do the right thing at work because we are sustained by the Lord and by our communities of love.

A program for doing the right thing at work grew out of the conversations and reflections about job experiences with participants in the Woodstock Business Conference monthly meetings. My new book Doing the Right Thing at Work: A Catholic's Guide to Faith, Business and Ethics, published by St. Anthony Messenger Press, recalls their stories and spells out a five-point program for living with wholeness and integrity. The five points are:

Self-awareness. We come to understand who we are, our strengths and what we value. We come to recognize our blindspots, weaknesses, and the limitations inherent in our particular worldview. We develop the habit of continuous self-reflection.

Expanding our horizons. Our deeply held beliefs and religious faith challenge our notions and behaviors by promoting prayerful reflection and disciplined lives. A religious horizon empowers us to recognize important questions. We see that our actions affect the lives of those we, and our business organizations, encounter. We take off our blinders and learn to notice and evaluate the structures and systems at work and in our community.

Engagement. We cannot run away and hide. We must engage using our intelligence, our ability to reason, our ability to make and carryout responsible choices, and our ability to love.

Community. Alone, it is hard to do any of this well. Our communities sustain us in a time of change. We are supported by our healthy relationships with our families, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and in our faith communities.

Prayer. We are empowered to stay on the right course when we pray and pray regularly.

Lack of integrity, corruption, and greed are not new. There is nothing novel about a society pummeled by conflicting messages and flapping in the shifting sands of public opinion. Long ago the prophet Micah berated the leaders of his society for ripping the people off. These leaders were charging people huge sums to put on lavish sacrifices. At the same time they led corrupt lives. Greed was their hallmark. Hypocrisy was their method of operation. Micah predicted horrible consequences for them. He reminded his listeners that even the most extravagant of offerings to God would not alter the judgments of condemnation they had merited. Then, he offered his famous advice:

You have been told, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you: only to do justice, and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

Whatever our jobs or state of life might be, we carry the challenge to bring justice, goodness, and joy to the world. Our quest for the moral compass, our deep-felt need for integration and wholeness, calls us to engage and to live the same values and behaviors in the office, the clinic, the classroom, the courthouse, and at home as at church. The five-point program I have outlined fosters our awareness and burnishes our desire. Follow it and you will do justice, love goodness, and walk humbly with your God.

More information about Nolan's new book and his renewed work with the Woodstock Business Conference is available online at http://woodstock.georgetown.edu/pr_nolan.htm. A longer version of this article is available at http://woodstock.georgetown.edu/wbc/nolan_talk.htm.