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Virtue of The Week

AMAONYE Chukwubusonma

Honesty

EZIGBO Naetonna

Forgiveness

Good morning staff and students of Jesuit Memorial College. My name is AMAONYE Chukwubusonma, and I stand here to present the Virtue of the Week, Honesty. This virtue involves telling the truth and never stealing or cheating. In other words, honesty involves being truthful, sincere and straightforward.

Honesty is more than following the rules to avoid detention, and it is not eye service. Honesty appears when we are always truthful to ourselves even when no one is watching. It is about building your personal character and earning the trust of those around us. “Who wouldn’t trust an honest man?” A wise man once asked, “An honest man is the noblest work of God”. And indeed, he is. Being honest is always worth it; be it in refusing to cheat in exams, refusing to lie for our friends, and owning up to our own mistakes.

In all these works of honesty and the pain that may follow, it may seem like honesty is worth nothing. But it really is worth something great and lasting. Being dishonest will bring you short term satisfaction and protection, but honesty promotes long-term goals. It is important to always stay truthful to your words. Don’t bend the truth. Don’t cheat. Cheating in an exam or an assignment may save you 30 minutes, or more of hard work. But in the long term, you will lose out. The progress you would have gained from failing that exam or assignment, and the support you would have received from all your teachers and even classmates are lost. And if you are caught, it robs you of the trust you worked hard to build. As we all know, trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.

No one likes dishonest people. No one forms friendships with people like that. Even if they do form, they are temporary. When you always cheat, lie or commit dishonest acts, you destroy your image and conscience. The person these acts affect the most is YOU because even if no one else finds out about it, your conscience will always remind you of it. There will always be a voice at the back of your minds saying, “You didn’t deserve these marks”.

I’m not saying honesty is easy to practice. The pressure put on us by our parents, and even some of our friends and teachers, makes it difficult to stay honest, especially in our academics. It isn’t always easy to say no. But character cannot be built when things are easy; it can only be built in those quiet moments when we have to decide between ‘right’ and ‘easy’. It may be easy for you to cheat during a class assessment or examination, but you know it is not the right thing to do. It may be easy for you to tell a lie and get away with it, but you know it is not the right thing to do. Therefore, doing the right and safe thing is better than doing the easy and risky thing.

So, as we prepare for our second Continuous Assessment Test for the term and the final examination for the academic year, I implore everyone to work hard to remain honest. Do not think or plan to cheat; instead, prepare as hard as you can, ask for help from those who can, and cross your t’s and dot your i’s before the assessments. Remember, the punishment you receive for cheating is greater than the pain you will endure for being honest. Let me leave you with these quotes from some renowned writers:

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” — William Shakespeare

“Always tell the truth. That way, you don’t have to remember what you said.” — Mark Twain

Thank you and have a fruitful week.

Chukwubusonma AMAONYE

Class of 2028

Good morning staff and students of Jesuit Memorial College. My name is Naetonna Ezigbo and I am in SS1B. Today, I will be talking about the virtue of this week which is forgiveness. Forgiveness refers to granting pardon to somebody who has wronged you in a certain way.

To understand forgiveness, I need to explain what it is not. Forgiveness does not mean erasing the past to avoid punishment or pretending our wrongdoings never existed or forcing yourself back into an unhealthy relationship. Like a laptop screen, when trust is broken, it takes time and effort to repair. Sometimes it is never fixed. It breaks forever. Forgiveness, however, is an intentional decision that can either happen immediately or overtime. It depends totally on the feeling of the one who has been wronged and when they are ready to forgive.

Let us look at forgiveness not as a moral obligation, a sign of weakness, or a favor to someone else, but as an act of personal freedom. When we refuse to forgive, we think our anger is a weapon. We think, “If I stay mad at them, I’m punishing them.” But the reality of life is that holding a grudge is like refusing to take our drugs and expecting our classmate to get sick. While we are sitting in class, fuming, replaying the argument again and again in our heads, and losing sleep, the other person has already moved on. Anger isn’t hurting them; it’s only draining your energy, ruining your focus, and spoiling your mood. It turns you ultimately into a bitter person.  There’s no point staying angry over not getting tea break; Mr James locking you in the hostel for coming out late; or Fr. Alex punishing you for coming late to Mass because all of that is just to ensure that we don’t forget to do the right thing.

Forgiveness is important to our mental health, physical health and personal growth. When you forgive, you save yourself from depression, high blood pressure, anxiety, as well as reduce the risk of having high blood pressure. Forgiveness also helps you develop great self-esteem and empathy. Forgiveness helps you become a more discerning and disciplined person.

Forgiving someone can be hard but not impossible. In order to achieve this, you have to:

  1. Acknowledge that you have been hurt
  2. Feel the anger, sadness or betrayal
  3. Make a conscious effort not to retaliate
  4. Acknowledge that the offender is not perfect
  5. Protect yourself from future harm by setting boundaries and distancing yourself from toxic situations.
  6. Embrace peace and move on with your life.

The examen prayer and grand silence are good tools of Ignatian Spirituality that can help us process our thoughts and feelings and discern how to forgive, even when it is difficult. Forgiveness requires a lot of discernment to process all the emotions. You can also ask for help by speaking with Fr. Uche, our chaplain, or the school counsellors. So, I hope that as we continue to strive through the challenges of JMC, we will be blessed with the ability to let go of grudges and free ourselves of the unnecessary burden. But most importantly, we would be able to do the right thing all the time.

Naetonna EZIGBO

Class of 2028

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To form men and women of conscience, competence, compassion and commitment.

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Jesuit Memorial College strives to form leaders who are open to growth, intellectually competent, loving, religious and committed to justice.