Loans and Mortgages

Posted by Negros Chronicle Published in Footsteps and Fingerprints

FOOTSTEPS AND FINGERPRINTS
by: NANCY RUSSELL CATAN

Nowadays we hear a lot about loans and foreclosures due to the tightening economic situation worldwide. Many people especially in the States who have mortgages on their homes and even on the physical assets in their businesses are facing serious downsizing and/or bank ruptcy. When we get a loan from a bank or financial institution, we are required to put up collateral for security, to insure that we will pay back the loan. If we don’t pay it back as agreed, then we lose our collateral to the financing institution.

Whether affected by the current economic crisis or not, we, all of us, have outstanding social mortgages.

What is a ‘social mortgage’? Property under a social mortgage has an intrinsically social function, in that it is supposed to, in one way or another, contribute to the good of society, to all members of our society.

We often consider money, wealth, and success as desirable goals of work, and we equate these goals with the material possessions that we acquire and own – land, buildings, vehicles, and other tangible assets.

Yes, our work needs to be justly remunerated. Yes, as workers we must be rightly compensated for our efforts. But we also need to recognize that we are not called to work just to be able to “have” or acquire more and more, but that our work must enable us to “be” more fully human not only as individuals, but also as contributors to the good of all persons, for the benefit of society in general. Everything we have is, in fact, on loan from God, our Father and Creator. He has given us stewardship over our possessions and acquisitions through a “social mortgage”.

As responsible stewards we must work to be able to return these things to Him, or to those in need, those who have less in life than we do. We should pay off our social mortgage to those who are least, last, and lost. And not only look to paying off the mortgage but also the interest it has earned.

If we have many employees, we must consider the welfare not only of the employees, but also of their families. How are we improving their lives?

We need to ask ourselves: am I really using all the home appliances I have, or are they just displayed to promote my social status, or do they just lie around gathering dust because I only use them on anniversaries and birthdays? Are my closets full of clothes that I only wear maybe once a month, or even once every six months? The bottom line is: am I using the things I have, my assets, material possessions, my business integrity, skills, talents, and treasure to promote the common good, not only my good? How well am I paying off my ‘social mortgage’? If God owns it all, what I am doing with it?