Work and rest

THIS is the regular rhythm in our life. Sorry for sounding dated, but work and rest are, as an old Sinatra song renders it, like love and marriage that should not be decoupled just like the horse and the carriage.

But if we have to understand this life pattern of ours in the context of our Christian faith, as we should, we will realize that they necessarily have to be spent always with God, never away or independently from him.

This point is echoed abundantly in many epistles of St. Paul. “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Therefore, whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Rom 14,8)

Another one: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) Yet another: “Whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with him.” (1 Thes 5,10)

Since our life is supposed to be a life with God, we should do everything to keep our Christian bearing even in our work and in our rest.

This is no easy task, of course. A good grounding in right doctrine is required. A lot of discipline is involved, plus, certain skills with the necessary attitudes and dispositions.

Our problem is that we tend to scatter our attention to the wind. We are easily dominated by tunnel-visioned passions.

The theology behind work and rest is quite known already. And yet I wonder how many of us seriously take it to heart, and really live that theology.

A friend, who manages a call center with some 200 young men and women under him, once expressed the concern that some of these young professionals do not have the proper work attitudes. They also have dubious ways of resting.

A housewife sometimes asks me how she could relate her household chores to God. How can she find God in her dish-washing and house-cleaning, in her cooking and laundry?

A college student tells me that he is so caught up with the pressures in school that the only thing that drives him is the need to pass his subjects and to eke time to unwind with friends, like having night outs and other gimmicks. God becomes a formal ornament with hardly has any impact on his life.

Of course, many professional men—imagine the businessmen and politicians—exposed to many temptations and perplexing moral predicaments in their work wonder how God can be made realistically relevant in their work.

I’ve also met quite a number who have tried to live in God’s presence, striving to put love into their work, but with very varying degrees of success.

There’s definitely a great need to sustain some kind of campaign to inculcate in people the spiritual and supernatural character of our work and rest, no matter how mundane, insignificant or full of moral dangers they may be.

The usual problem is that many do not consciously conform their work and rest to the requirements of their faith. They just flow in some kind of a groove and routine, moved simply by some vague inertia that has hardly to do with faith.

We have to remind ourselves very often to break away from this inertial frame of mind. We have to remember that our work, as long as it is not a sin, is part of God’s providence in which we are asked to participate.

Our work has to be done always with love for God and love for others. It’s love that brings us closer to them and will make us understand more deeply our work’s importance and relevance in everybody’s life.

Our rest should also be resting in God, for our Lord himself said: “Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11,28)

What actually tires us is our pride as manifested in getting increasingly absorbed in our own selves, weaving all sorts of pressures and anxieties, and forgetting there’s only one thing necessary—to be with God in order to be with others in intimate communion of life and love.

We have to continually check ourselves whether unknowingly we are drifting toward self-absorption. We need to pray and to offer sacrifices to purify and discipline our flesh that tends to make war with the spirit, and with God.