“Organizations, like men, if
they are to command respect and
grow, must have a sense of honor
and must fulfill their promises.”

Today after our Faith Sharing group met we had lunch and somehow the conversation got around to humorous remarks about individual achievements. There is a poster on my kitchen wall saying how by “working together we could make a difference”. I made reference to it in saying how in the ‘old days’, meaning the 60’s, how individual achievements were not as important to us then group efforts.

In the time of Jesus there was no sense of the individual; everyone was part of a group. Nowadays we take Jesus’ statements in Matthew 25 about feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, releasing the prisons as individual challenges. We often fail to read that in this story Jesus told starts off by saying on what basis nations would be judged not individuals. We are also members of groups and organizations that are responsible.

In many of the Olympic events that we are watching on TV these days, gymnastics, diving, shooting, archery, tennis, weight living, track and field events and boxing are about individual achievements and rewards. In politics we talk about individuals and what they can do or not do for us. Lowering the taxes for individual or organization seems to be much more popular than any talk about the ‘common good’. Talking about the ‘common good’ makes one susceptible to being a socialist, the opposite of the best, capitalist.

Yet in many faiths and religions working for the common good is praised. Yes we are judged as individuals but also, as Jesus said, as groups, organizations or nations.

My picture quote of the day from Gandhi says it well: “Organizations, like men, if they are to command respect and grow, must have a sense of honor and must fulfill their promises.” Organizations, countries and groups can do good or wrong. Organizations matter.

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