354. Twenty-first Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 322 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Turning our work into prayer.

The Second Vatican Council reminds us that all the faithful, whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to that perfect holiness whereby the Father himself is perfect. Furthermore, as everyday Christians, we are taught that: The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God.

We live in the world and have a professional job; it is there that God has called us, and where he wishes us to remain so that we may seek sanctity and find him through doing our work with love and supernatural outlook. Do not labour for the food which perishes, Jesus says, but for the food which endures to eternal life? Contemplation is promised us, St Augustine says, as the goal of all our labour and the everlasting perfection of our joy.

All men and women are called by God to a loving contemplation which, as St Thomas Aquinas explains, will be perfect in the next life, when we shall see God “face to face”; hence it will make us perfectly happy. Now, however, the contemplation of divine truth can be ours only imperfectly, “in a mirror dimly”. Consequently, it gives us a certain foretaste of happiness which begins here so as to be continued in the life to come.

This beginning of eternal beatitude which is contemplation should be reflected in the whole of our life. The spirit of the Work, our Father said, requires us to be contemplatives at work and at rest, on the street and in family life.

In every occupation, whatever the task, we raise our hearts to God: he sang praise with all his heart, and he loved his Maker. We keep up a loving conversation with our heavenly Father and with the Blessed Virgin, our Mother.

If we are working wholly for our Lord, we will keep him present in our heart. And work will be an exercise in love, the loving fulfilment of the will of God our Father. You’ll let yourself become absorbed in activity only to divinize it, our Founder said, since with our spirit the earthly becomes divine, the temporal eternal. Although the earth, which has come forth from God’s hands, is beautiful and we love it, our gaze is fixed on heaven. We are not worldly, but we have to love the world, we want to remain in it. Nor do we separate contemplation from action: I contemplate because I work, and I work because I contemplate. This way, interior life infuses fresh ardour into our task, perfecting it, ennobling it, making it more worthy, more lovable. It doesn’t distance us from our temporal occupations, but rather leads us to be more attentive to them.

If ever we feel incapable of working with the love and human perfection our faith requires, we will turn immediately to God: Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant who trusts in you.

Work, a source of interior purification.

In order to assist the action of grace, our will and our faculties need to be purified. We have to put off our former selves and convert our entire being to God. Otherwise we will hinder the action of God’s light and love in our soul.

By working seriously and well to fulfil God’s will, we come to forget about ourselves and serve others. Work, therefore, becomes a wonderful means for interior purification, for overcoming our pride and sensuality. St Thomas wrote: When our mind is intent on temporal goods to rest in them, it remains at their level. But when it seeks them with a view to eternal happiness, it is not lowered by them, but rather raises them up. Through work, our will is strengthened, and we learn to have an upright intention. Our Father told us that we must therefore make our own the attitude of Christ our Lord. His only desire was to fulfil his Father’s will. Meus cibus est, ut faciam voluntatem eius qui misit me, ut perficiam opus eius. My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.

Work is also a rich source of mortification, of growth and perseverance in all the virtues. For the best spirit of sacrifice is to maintain one’s enthusiasm for a task one has started on. And our Father added: We don’t persevere in work because we feel like it, but because it must be done; and then we do it willingly and cheerfully. Above all, we have to continue our professional task even when our initial enthusiasm fades away. Usually people celebrate the laying of the first stone of a building; I like to celebrate placing the last one.

The deep apostolic dimension of work is another reason for carrying it out with love for God and a desire to win souls. As our Founder wrote: When you come to understand that ideal of fraternal work for Christ, you will feel better, more secure, and as happy as one can be in this world, which so many are bent on making shabby and bitter by following their own selfish aims alone.

Without work we could not sanctify ourselves according to the spirit of Opus Dei.

It is God’s will that we work. We know very well that our professional job is what we have to sanctify, what sanctifies us, and what we have to use to sanctify others. Without hard work, we could not attain the sanctity we are called to by vocation. If someone were to come to Opus Dei who didn’t work, and failed to correct this inclination to be idle, in two days he’d be out on the street.

St Paul’s example is eloquent. Amid his many apostolic activities he worked with his own hands to earn a living, and so he could say to the Thessalonians: you remember our labour and toil, brethren; we worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you, while we preached to you the gospel of God. An early Christian document stresses the basic need to work: If someone wants to settle among you, and is a skilled worker, let him find employment and earn his bread. If he knows no trade, use your discretion to make sure that he does not live in idleness simply on the strength of his being a Christian. Unless he agrees to this, he is only trying to exploit Christ. You must be on your guard against men of that sort.

Get working, our Father told us. When you have the responsibility of a professional job, the life of your soul will improve. And this responsibility and concern will lead to an effort to do even the tiniest things well: Love will lead you to pay careful attention to little things without becoming rigid. It will give you an eye for detail, with the vigour of solid Christian virtue, and spontaneity to seek new opportunities to show your faith and love.

To mature in our vocation, we need to learn to work very well and make better use of our time. Let us work, our Founder wrote. Let us work a lot and work well, without forgetting that prayer is our best weapon. That is why I will never tire of repeating that we have to be contemplative souls in the midst of the world, who try to convert their work into prayer.

When we strive to stay close to God in this way, a time comes when it’s impossible to distinguish between work and contemplation: we can’t say that here we are praying and there we are working. We are always praying, contemplating in God’s presence. Ostensibly people of action, we end up rising to the heights of the greatest mystics: I flew so high, so high, that in the end I reached my prey, to the heights of the heart of God. Lose if you wish to win. Go down if you wish to rise. Suffer if you wish to be happy. Die if you wish to live.

Let us ask God for a long life filled with work, both human and divine. We want to come to the end of our lives squeezed out like a lemon, unable to give any more, because we have spent ourselves entirely in a complete holocaust. We have the example of our Lord and our Blessed Lady: a life of work without human glory, but filled with redemptive force.