CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGHER VALUES1

1. Depth of Contentment. A characteristic of higher values tells us that the higher will
be its value when there is greater satisfaction and fulfillment of the person carrying it.

2. Indivisibility. A characteristic of higher values which tells us that the lesser a value
partakes in extension, the lesser it can be divided but the more it can be shared to
others, the higher will be its value.

3. Absolute Immediacy. A characteristic of higher values which demands that a value

must be realized here and now. It requires urgent response when the value is under
threat.

4. Endurance. Higher values have the ability to endure through time. In contrast, lower
values will just fade away. In the case of love, if you truly love a person, and say I love
you. Your intention to love is not intended for one week only, but forever. That’s why to
those who are in love, time is eternity. From this perspective, the other meaning of “I
love you” is “you shall not die” because forever, you are always alive in my heart.

5. Foundation. A higher value is more comprehensive while lower values are

subordinated to higher ones. Thus, if it is the foundation of other values, then it is said to
be higher. For example, you give gifts to your parents because you love them. In effect,
generosity is founded upon love. Thus, love is a higher value than generosity.

6. Solidarity. A higher value promotes solidarity among the people.

John Paul II’s Theory of Participation2

1. Participation means embracing the humanity of the other person as another

I. “The commandment of love points only to this that every human being must constantly
regard as a duty the actual participation in the humanity of other people, that is, the
experiencing of another as an "I," as a person.

2. Alienation For alienation is nothing else but the contradiction of participation, the
weakening or simply the annihilation of the possibility to experience another human
being as the "other I," and through a certain deformation of the scheme "I--- other."
Alienation denotes such a situation in a human being, such state, in which he is not
capable to experience another human being as the "other I."

The Body of Christ (Corinthians 12: 12-26.)

1
Condensed and revised by Roland L. Aparece from Max Scheler, Formalism in Ethics and Non Formal Ethics of
Values (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), pp. 90-100.
2
Wojtyla, Karol, “Participation or Alienation,” Analecta Hussrliana 6(1979) pp. 61-73

1
 As the body is one, having many members and all the members while being
many form one body so it is with Christ. All of us whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or
freemen have been baptized in one Spirit to form one body and all of us have been
given to drink from the one spirit.

The body has not just one member but many. If the foot should say, “ I do not
belong to the body for I am not a hand, ” it would be wrong, it is part of the body! Even
though the ear says, “I do not belong to the body for I am not an eye, ” it is part of the
body! If all of the body were eye, how would we hear? And if all the body were ear, how
would we smell?

God has arranged all the members placing each part so the body as he pleased.
If all were the same part, where would the body be? But there are many members and
one body. The eye cannot tell the hand, “I do not need you,” nor the head tell the feet, “
I do not need you. ”

Still more, the parts of our body that we most need are those that seem to be the
weakest; the parts that we consider lower are treated with much care and we cover
them with more modesty because they are less presentable, whereas the others do not
need such attention. God himself arrange the body in this way, giving more honor to
those parts that need it so that the body may not be divided but rather each member
may care for the others. When one suffers all of them suffers, and when one receives
honor, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and each of you individually is a member of it.

FEELING STATE VALUES BEARER/EXEMPLARS INSTITUTIONS

1. Bliss/ Despair Salvation Saint Churches

2. Happiness/Unhappiness Justice, Truth, Sage, Judge Schools,

Beauty, Love* Societies

3. Vitality/Weakness Health/Life Hero Life-

Communities,
Families, Tribes

4. Pleasure/Pain Entertainment, Bon-vivant, connoisseur Herds, Mobs,

Utility Contagion

Let us always use our intelligence in choosing and doing what is good!
May God bless us all. - Sir Roland Aparece