ONE of the first things I learned from St. Josemaria
Escriva, the Opus
Dei founder whose 10th anniversary of his canonization was celebrated
recently, was that work that is sanctified by a person sanctifies him.
This was many, many years ago.
It was actually an eye-opener for me, a kind of game-changer. I
thought work was just any kind of work that had to be disposed of as
best and as soon as one could, and there was not much to it. What St.
Josemaria taught me was that work has tremendous sanctifying powers.
Work, any kind of work as long as it is honest and not sinful, can
relate us to God and to others. We are not meant to be by ourselves.
We have been made to be with God and with others. And while we can do
that through our intentions, we attain that goal more perfectly with
our work.
It can bring us to heaven. It can make us a better person. It’s not
just something mechanical, since it has a profound spiritual
significance that can enable us, with God’s grace, to be raised to the
supernatural order, which our Christian faith teaches we are meant
for.
All this because first of all work is part of our human nature. It is
what God has given us. “Man is born to labor and the bird to fly.”
(Job 5,7) The difference between our human work and the bird’s
capacity to fly is that ours is done knowingly and freely if not
lovingly, while the bird flies by instinct alone.
Our work in its objectivity connects us deeply with God and with
others. It is a major component of our nature that is supposed to be
the image and likeness of God. In other words, it is our work that
makes us resemble God to a certain extent.
Our work is how our relation with God and with others is developed. It
is not meant only to serve our own personal goals. The birds, when
they fly, do so out of instinct, out of self-preservation and
interest. And that’s because they are not capable of knowing and
loving. When we work, we necessarily relate ourselves to God and
others.
Even more, we can say that our work has the possibility of being part
of the abiding providence of God over us. No matter how small and
ordinary it is, if we go more deeply into the theology of work, we
can’t help but arrive at the conclusion that our work can also be part
of God’s continuing governance over the world.
Still, given our wounded human condition, we can distort and overturn
the objective design God has for us. And instead of doing our work as
a way to relate ourselves to God and others, we can do it just for our
own selfish purposes, thereby converting our work as an occasion for
sinning.
This is where we need to be reminded as often as possible to sanctify
our work. That simply means that we need to offer our work to God and
others. That is what sanctifying one’s work means. It is when we offer
it to God and others with a pure heart.
Sanctifying our work or offering it to God and others converts our
work from something merely mechanical and human to something spiritual
with great supernatural possibilities. Even a very lowly work from the
human point of view, like washing dishes or sweeping the floor, when
offered to God acquires these spiritual and supernatural qualities.
And the immediate effect of this is that one gets to be sanctified
himself, that is, he is made a better person, becomes more and more
like God in terms of goodness and love, develops more virtues, becomes
more thoughtful and caring, etc.
We just have to be clear about the proper attitude. For us to sanctify
our work and to be sanctified by it, we have to offer it to God. We
should be careful not to work only for purely human and natural
motives, no matter how good and legitimate they are.
We have to say this because very often we get contented with abiding
by merely human and natural considerations for work, like efficiency,
effectiveness, self-development, even philanthropy, social concern,
justice, etc. These should come as consequences of our love for God as
motive for working, not the goals themselves.
In our current culture, we have to be wary of the tendency for
“professionalitis” and workaholism that empty our work of its
sanctifying potentials.
Dei founder whose 10th anniversary of his canonization was celebrated
recently, was that work that is sanctified by a person sanctifies him.
This was many, many years ago.
It was actually an eye-opener for me, a kind of game-changer. I
thought work was just any kind of work that had to be disposed of as
best and as soon as one could, and there was not much to it. What St.
Josemaria taught me was that work has tremendous sanctifying powers.
Work, any kind of work as long as it is honest and not sinful, can
relate us to God and to others. We are not meant to be by ourselves.
We have been made to be with God and with others. And while we can do
that through our intentions, we attain that goal more perfectly with
our work.
It can bring us to heaven. It can make us a better person. It’s not
just something mechanical, since it has a profound spiritual
significance that can enable us, with God’s grace, to be raised to the
supernatural order, which our Christian faith teaches we are meant
for.
All this because first of all work is part of our human nature. It is
what God has given us. “Man is born to labor and the bird to fly.”
(Job 5,7) The difference between our human work and the bird’s
capacity to fly is that ours is done knowingly and freely if not
lovingly, while the bird flies by instinct alone.
Our work in its objectivity connects us deeply with God and with
others. It is a major component of our nature that is supposed to be
the image and likeness of God. In other words, it is our work that
makes us resemble God to a certain extent.
Our work is how our relation with God and with others is developed. It
is not meant only to serve our own personal goals. The birds, when
they fly, do so out of instinct, out of self-preservation and
interest. And that’s because they are not capable of knowing and
loving. When we work, we necessarily relate ourselves to God and
others.
Even more, we can say that our work has the possibility of being part
of the abiding providence of God over us. No matter how small and
ordinary it is, if we go more deeply into the theology of work, we
can’t help but arrive at the conclusion that our work can also be part
of God’s continuing governance over the world.
Still, given our wounded human condition, we can distort and overturn
the objective design God has for us. And instead of doing our work as
a way to relate ourselves to God and others, we can do it just for our
own selfish purposes, thereby converting our work as an occasion for
sinning.
This is where we need to be reminded as often as possible to sanctify
our work. That simply means that we need to offer our work to God and
others. That is what sanctifying one’s work means. It is when we offer
it to God and others with a pure heart.
Sanctifying our work or offering it to God and others converts our
work from something merely mechanical and human to something spiritual
with great supernatural possibilities. Even a very lowly work from the
human point of view, like washing dishes or sweeping the floor, when
offered to God acquires these spiritual and supernatural qualities.
And the immediate effect of this is that one gets to be sanctified
himself, that is, he is made a better person, becomes more and more
like God in terms of goodness and love, develops more virtues, becomes
more thoughtful and caring, etc.
We just have to be clear about the proper attitude. For us to sanctify
our work and to be sanctified by it, we have to offer it to God. We
should be careful not to work only for purely human and natural
motives, no matter how good and legitimate they are.
We have to say this because very often we get contented with abiding
by merely human and natural considerations for work, like efficiency,
effectiveness, self-development, even philanthropy, social concern,
justice, etc. These should come as consequences of our love for God as
motive for working, not the goals themselves.
In our current culture, we have to be wary of the tendency for
“professionalitis” and workaholism that empty our work of its
sanctifying potentials.
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