Presentation by Fr Adolfo Bueno of the Prelature of Opus Dei at a July 7 workshop on ‘Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection’, a practical handbook for Catholic businessmen and women published by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Venue was the Assumption Parish Centre, Maraval.
Scripture is full of references to work, even when least expected. Admittedly, the parable of the Prodigal Son deals with repentance and God’s mercy but we also read: “How many hired men in my Father´s house have bread in abundance.” House stands for company, business, corporation, farm, ranch. It is a well managed enterprise. The young man finally acknowledges that his father’s methods of work, the discipline and constancy he personally rejected, were not senseless whims. He had judged that his father was a fool who, having all the means to enjoy life, to be a bon vivant, denied himself working the whole day and procuring others’ welfare. When the son suffered the consequences of his self-centeredness and easy life, he discovered two great truths: that work is good, that it is the normal way of living, and that work is toilsome.
These assessments are old in the Bible. Scott Hahn explains:
God made Adam “because there was no man… by both the Father and His heirs (Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace, pp. 26-27).
Work was enjoyable, the earth was big for such a tiny creature as man and the plants spontaneously produced enough food so they did not have to work for nourishment. In this context we don’t see room for moral problems.
But the Bible also mentions original sin and its consequences in connection to human work: “Cursed is the ground…” (Gen 3, 17-19), in Hahn p. 26.
Work has become onerous, heavy, toilsome, exhausting. Moral problems now arise, because obvious temptations are in sight. If work is hard, why not try to steal the fruits of someone else’s work and thus eat without working? St. Paul mentioned this problem in 2 Thes. 3, 10 and gave his opinion: “if any man will not work, neither let him eat.” The prodigal son discovered that you cannot escape from the law of work without suffering the consequences and decided to accept it as it is: “I will get up and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am no longer worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired men.” So he was willing to accept any kind of work, heavy and toilsome, without complaints.
“How many hired men in my Father´s business have bread in abundance.” There should be countless business to provide bread in abundance. That is the will of God. But after original sin Cain killed his brother Abel, and there are countless Cains who, through their immoral behavior, contribute to starve their fellowmen.
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A pharmaceutical business provides bread in abundance to the employees and medicines for the sick but, in that particular country or economy it cannot survive without selling to the hospitals, and the general practice is that the purchase managers ask for a 10% “commission”. That increases the final prize of the products so it harms the customers. It’s an additional tax.
To clarify the issue we can think of an easier case. A man is kidnapped and placed in the trunk of his car. From there he can listen that they plan to kill him pushing him down from a cliff. He has a weapon tied to his leg and when they open the trunk he kills one of the kidnappers. The other runs away in the car. Some authors refer to this case as killing in self-defense and give their approval. But I find something wrong in this analysis. It gives grounds to the objection that the end justifies the means, that saving your life justifies killing the aggressor.
Pope John Paul’s encyclical on morals Veritatis splendor recalls that to be good the act’s intention or proximate end must be good. «The morality of the human act depends primarily and fundamentally on the “object” rationally chosen by the deliberate will» (Veritatis splendor, 78). Killing is not good. Thus Aquinas does not talk about “killing in self-defense” but about self-defense, which is the act’s proximate end or intention. That’s what the acting person wants, that is the object of his deliberate will or intention. If in the whole of the operation something bad occurs, it is labeled as an effect of the act, an effect that is not willed.
In turn, there are good effects of the original act such as the preservation of one’s life or the survival of an efficient and beneficial corporation. The bad effects are not willed; the original act and the good effects are willed or intended. It will be helpful to read Thomas Aquinas’ analysis in the Secunda secundae, 64, 7:
Nothing hinders one act from having two effects, only one of which is intended, while the other is beside the intention. Now moral acts take their species according to what is intended (secundum id quod intenditur), and not acccording to what is beside the intention since this is incidental (per accidens) as explained above… Thus the act of self-defense may have two effects, one is the saving of one’s life, and the other is the slaying of the aggressor. The action insofar as it intends the preservation of one’s life has nothing unlawful since it is natural for everything to keep itself in being as far as possible. Yet, though proceeding from good intention, an act may be rendered illicit if it is out of proportion to the end. For instance, if someone in self-defense uses more violence than necessary, it will be illicit, whereas if he repels violence with moderation his defense will be licit…
The death of the aggressor is not intended, quod intenditur, and therefore from the moral perspective is per accidens. What is essential in morals is the deliberate will, the intention or proximate end of a deliberate decision (Veritatis splendor, 78). The convenience of acting in self-defense is the prompt conclusion of an intellectual analysis of unnatural relations or circumstances created by violence. We could say that the death of the unjust aggressor is executed against the will, under violent coercion, because there is no other way —or “means”, improperly speaking— of self-defense which is the only goal really willed or intended. The Secunda secundae underscores besides that the behavior of the agent must not be out of proportion to the end. The defense must be proportionate to the aggression. Otherwise such reaction and its effects would not be a lesser evil: the death of an unarmed robber of bicycles is a much greater evil than the material loss.
Applying the analogy to the business enterprise, the aggressor is a robber who wants 10% of the sales. The corporation has to sell in order to survive and is rendering quality service and goods while providing a number of jobs.
Following Aquinas’ analysis, the original act of selling the products of a company —which is good and necessary— in this juncture has two effects, one good and one bad. Aquinas does not “justify” anything: he admits that one of the effects is bad, participate in corruption. The bad effect is not intended but it exists. Summarizing, what are the conditions to perform an act which has a good and a bad effect or sequel? We can mention three conditions: 1) The original act must be good, for instance, preservation or defense of one’s life, development of a beneficial or useful corporation. 2) The good effects must be superior to the bad. Perhaps we need advice to make this evaluation correctly. 3) A continuous effort must be made to diminish or eliminate the bad effects.
The self-defense example is a closed case. There is no room for the third condition. But in business that is not usually so. The purchase executives may continue asking for commissions and the tax officers from the Inland Revenue may continue to exert extortion. The executives of the corporations should then consider what can be done in successive stages to improve the situation, and their measures should not be out of proportion. This is contained in numeral 2. We should try to have a good influence in society. It does not seem appropriate to organize a massacre of tax collectors or extortionists. Violence engenders violence.
