Reflections for this Pentecost Sunday (May 15, 2016) in light of the film Spotlight let me back to my posting from 2013:
--------------
We come to Pentecost Sunday (May 19th), the end of the Easter season and fulfillment of the promise related on Ascension Sunday. At the vigil Mass on Saturday the first reading (Gen 11:1-9) tells us of the corporate effort to build the tower of Babel. This was a corporate effort to gain prestige and power. It is contrasted with the first reading for Sunday (Acts 2: 1-11) in which the Spirit comes to the Apostles when they are gathered as a body. The story of Babel is a story of a single people split into groups and speaking different languages. After Pentecost the apostles go out speaking many languages. Instead of fragmenting humanity, the languages are given in order to unify it in a single body, the Church. Even though the Spirit comes to individuals it comes to them when assembled as a body. There is a corporate dimension to Pentecost.
Back in 2006 I was fascinated with the idea of corporate spirituality and wrote this:
Institutions provide much of the resources with which we can provide service and exercise our creativity. Institutional culture also set the context for our work. A culture maybe healthy or dysfunctional. Cultures can be both dysfunctional and in denial for long periods of time. Businesses, being subject to market forces, are likely to pay the price for denial relatively quickly. Government agencies, subject only to James Madison’s constitutional system of divided powers, can survive a bit longer. My church, subject neither to market forces or citizens empowered by the vote, can maintain dysfunctional cultural patterns for centuries.
I’ve not gone quite as far as Walter Wink in suggesting that the Powers of this world are spiritual entities (Eph 6:11-13). I would agree that corporate culture is a spiritual reality – at least in the sense that team spirit is a reality.
One of the essential tasks of workplace spirituality is to positively influence corporate culture, challenging it if we must.
I've never been able to clearly state the connections between corporate spirituality and just how the Spirit strengthens us as a body. These connections are real and we bear a responsibility to the organizations to which we belong and to our employers. Part of our responsibility is to work to see that the corporate ethic is healthy and dedicated to service. If it isn't, we will need the help of the Spirit to correct the corporate spirits of this world.
------------
In the film, the Boston Globe also acknowledges that the newspaper had failed to investigate early reports of abuse by priests. Institutional failure can occur at many levels. Corporate ethics are not just the responsibility leaders, or church leaders. We are all empowered by the Spirit and responsible for working to see that institutions run properly.
Comments