When the Sacred Calling Meets the Highest Bidder

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 22:1–14), Jesus tells the ultimate story of event-planning chaos: A King hosts a grand wedding banquet for his son. The ancient decree also echoes across generations with its most unforgettable line: "Many are called, but few are chosen."

In its purest form, this filtering process serves a noble societal function. Consider the priesthood or the nursing profession. Thousands line up at the gates of seminaries and nursing colleges, but only a handful possess the genuine vocation—the rare willingness to surrender personal comfort, endure long night shifts, and maximize human well-being over personal profit.

[ THE TRUE VOCATION (NURSE / PRIEST) ]

• Inputs: Self-sacrifice, empathy, service.

[ THE COMMERCIALIZED PROFESSION (LAWYER / POLITICIAN) ]

• Inputs: Retainer fees, political machinery, strategy.

[ THE TRUE VOCATION (NURSE / PRIEST) ]

• Net Social Outcome: Maximum healing & relief.

[ THE COMMERCIALIZED PROFESSION (LAWYER / POLITICIAN) ]

• Net Social Outcome: Concentrated wealth & systemic harm.

[ THE TRUE VOCATION (NURSE / PRIEST) ]

• Metric of Success: Lives saved & souls comforted.

[ THE COMMERCIALIZED PROFESSION (LAWYER / POLITICIAN) ]

• Metric of Success: Cases won & budgets allocated.

When a nurse stays awake for 36 hours in a crowded public hospital ward to keep a critical patient alive, societal utility is maximized. Pain is minimized; collective human welfare increases. They were chosen because their intrinsic drive yields the greatest net good for the greatest number of people.

Now, apply the same principle to politics. Many are called. In fact, every three years, thousands of applicants flood the Commission on Elections to file their Certificates of Candidacy, donning white linen barongs and flashing well-rehearsed smiles.

[ THE POLITICAL CANDIDATE SELECTION MODEL ]

THOUSANDS APPLY (FILING CERTIFICATES OF CANDIDACY)
│
▼
THE ELECTORAL FILTER PROCESS
│
▼
ARE THEY CHOSEN FOR THE NET PUBLIC BENEFIT?
┌──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┐
│ │
▼ ▼
[ THE FEW GOOD ONES ] [ THE SELF-SERVING MAJORITY ]
• Drafts effective public policy. • Converts public tax funds into
• Allocates resources to the poor. private wealth.
• Increases societal wellbeing. • Maximizes personal net worth at
the expense of millions.

If the primary purpose of governance is to produce the greatest happiness and prosperity for the entire population, the current screening mechanism is catastrophically broken.

Thousands run for office, but only a tiny fraction operate as genuine public servants. The rest simply view the state treasury as an investment portfolio with guaranteed returns. Instead of reducing social suffering, their presence in office actively compounds it.

Perhaps the most tragic distortion of "vocation" occurs within the legal profession.

Lawyers are called to be ministers of justice—a role meant to protect the vulnerable, uphold truth, and structure a peaceful society. Yet, when legal skill is decoupled from moral outcomes, the utility calculation flips entirely.

THE LAWYER'S UTILITY DILEMMA

OPTION A: Defend the Public Good & Truth

• Outcome: Systemic justice, public safety maintained.

• Compensation: Standard professional fee.

OPTION B: Defend the Wealthy Corrupt Bad Actors

• Outcome: A dangerous criminal/corrupt official walks free; public trust eroded; societal harm

• Compensation: ₱10,000,000 Retainer Fee.

SKILL vs. SOCIETAL VALUE

-THE HIGH-PRICED "BRILLIANT" LAWYER

• Uses technical loopholes to stall trials.

• Suppresses evidence on procedural technicalities.

• Bends the law to protect illicit wealth.

-THE NET EFFECT ON SOCIETY

• Empowers corrupt actors to repeat harm

• Destroys public faith in institutional rule

• Generates massive net societal misery.

A lawyer may be "brilliant" in courtroom mechanics, but if that brilliance is deployed to shield a plunderer or an abuser from accountability, what is the net value of their talent to human society? It is negative.

When a defense counsel stomaches defending the wrong client not out of a constitutional commitment to due process, but because the check has enough zeros, truth ceases to be the goal. Truth becomes a collateral casualty, and the money offered dictates who gets to buy immunity.

"Many are called, but few are chosen" should not merely be a statement of spiritual destiny—it is the ultimate standard for evaluating human value in public life.

A nurse or priest is chosen when their service alleviates pain and builds up human dignity.

A politician is truly chosen only when their policies leave the majority of people better off than they found them.

A lawyer is truly chosen when their legal mind serves as a pillar of justice, not an expensive shield for bad actors dodging accountability.

Talent, intelligence, and a high-paying client list mean nothing if your life's work leaves the world poorer, less just, and more full of suffering. In the end, the ultimate measure of any profession isn't how much wealth you accumulated while practicing it—it's how much good remained after you stepped off the stage.