368. Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)
Meditations no. 333 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Christ not only did good things; he did all things well, and completed them.
If you consider the many compliments paid to Jesus by those who witnessed his life, you will find one which in a way embraces all of them. I am thinking of the spontaneous exclamation of wonder and enthusiasm which arose from the crowd at the astonishing sight of his miracles: bene omnia fecit, he has done everything exceedingly well: not only the great miracles, but also the little everyday things that didnât dazzle anyone, but which Christ performed with the accomplishment of one who is perfectus Deus, perfectus homo, perfect God and perfect man.
This is the scene we contemplate in St Markâs Gospel. Our Lord has just returned to Galilee after a long trip, and he is asked to cure a man who is deaf and dumb. Jesus takes the man aside and touches his tongue and ears, saying to him: âEphphatha,â that is, âBe opened.â And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Those present marvelled at the miracle and proclaimed Jesusâ wondrous deeds.
Our Lord not only did good things, but did all things well: he finished things down to the last detail. To call an act virtuous, St Thomas Aquinas wrote, we need to evaluate both the action and how it is done. For our work to be pleasing to God, we need, among other things, to do it as perfectly as possible.
By divine vocation we are dedicated to God, to bring him all noble human activities, and to the people at our side. If our work were shoddy or careless, God would not want to accept it. Scripture says: To be accepted you shall offer a victim without blemish ⌠You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable. God is not satisfied with mediocre work, just as we human beings are not satisfied with service done half-heartedly. It would show meagre generosity and little love.
Our Lordâs whole life fills me with love for him, but I have a special weakness for his thirty hidden years spent in Bethlehem, Egypt and Nazareth. That period, so long in comparison with his public life and which the Gospels barely mention, might seem empty of any special meaning to a person who views it superficially. And yet I have always maintained that this silence about our Lordâs early life speaks eloquently for itself, and contains a wonderful lesson for us Christians. They were years of intense work and prayer, years during which Jesus led an ordinary life, a life like ours, we might say, which was both divine and human at the same time. In his simple workshop, unnoticed, he did everything to perfection, just as he was later to do before the multitudes.
Contemplating our Lordâs hidden life will help us to imitate him in doing everything well. We can imagine ourselves with St Joseph in the workshop at Nazareth, together with Jesus and Mary. Then our work will take on new meaning and fresh perspectives. God wants us to be spread out from pole to pole, present at all the worldâs crossroads. Si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum: when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself. Christ is the centre, the King, of all creation, through his Incarnation, through his âordinary professional workâ in Nazareth, through his complete dedication to his messianic mission, and through his death on the Cross.
Let us dedicate our lives fully to God our Lord, working with perfection, each in our own job in the heart of society. May we have one sole aspiration in all our deeds: to place Christ at the summit of all human activities, and thus contribute to bringing Christâs light and life, his peace and love, to all mankind.
Responsibility to do our work as perfectly as possible.
The requirement, both human and divine, to work well leads us in the first place to be diligent in our professional training. We have to make good use of our time, since we will always need to improve in the way we work.
Our work is done in the middle of the world. It is professional work. For this reason, when I remind you of the need to work, I also have to remind you of the need to work well. It isnât only a matter of filling our hours with work, but of working with technical and professional competence.
Work can never be for you a game which is not taken seriously; nor something done by âamateursâ or as a âhobbyâ. What do I care if I were to be told, for example, that one of my sons is a bad teacher but a good son? If he is not a good teacher, what good is he to me? In reality, he is not a good son of mine if he has not used the means to improve in his profession. We must work like the best of our colleagues. And if it is possible, even better than the best. A man who is not keen on his profession is of no use to me.
In recalling the importance of our daily work, we should carefully examine the way we work and our attitude to it, and not be afraid of working too hard. Everyone around us works, whether or not they have a family to support. They work not only a reasonable amount of hours, the hours others work, but many of them, out of love for their work or because they need to earn more, dedicate still more time to their job.
If so many people work so hard, often without knowing our Lord, what should we do? We have to work seriously, enlisting all our energies and abilities. Our work should never be shoddy or left unfinished. We mustnât leave off working, nor consciously reduce its effectiveness. We have to keep up a sustained effort to do things well, hour after hour, and produce proper results. If people around us work so hard throughout the day, we mustnât do less, our Father told us. That would be shameful. And it wouldnât be the way of sanctifying ourselves or our work or others.
Naturally, hard work requires effort and makes us tired. Then is the moment to offer our tiredness to God and ask for his help, to renew our apostolic zeal, to continue caring for details. If we did not act in this way, our Founder explained, it would seem as if our supernatural family were less important than the human family we might have formed. It would be a lack of responsibility and seriousness; it would mean not wanting to become saints, not wanting to become good instruments for serving God.
Our holiness depends on the perfection of our work.
Because of the great human and social value of work, but principally because of its instrumental role in the economy of Redemption, we have an obligation to acquire due professional competence to the highest degree possible.
Good work requires proper professional qualifications. We have been called to sanctify ourselves in our profession and, as I shall often tell you in writing, for us work is the hinge on which all our commitment to reach Christian perfection must turn. Thus, in seeking supernatural perfection, we have to strive to work with human perfection, each in his own job or profession. Therefore those who donât want to struggle to avoid being shoddy workers cannot understand us.
Perfection in our human work is part of our mission. My daughters and sons, work, in whatever profession or job we have, is a source of sanctity. If we work with this in mind, we will attain Christian perfection and, at the same time, sanctify our work and sanctify others.
We must therefore make our own the attitude of Christ our Lord. His only desire was to fulfil his Fatherâs 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.
The need to sanctify our professional work leads us to carry it out in Godâs presence. Do your work, our Father tells us, in the knowledge that God is watching: laborem manuum mearum respexit Deus (God saw the labour of my hands). Our work therefore has to be holy and worthy of him: not only finished down to the last detail, but carried out with moral rectitude, unselfishness, loyalty and justice. In this way our professional work will not only be upright and holy, but will be on that account prayer as well.
Let me cite the words of an ancient writer, a Father of the Church: I will teach you a way to praise God all day long. Whenever you do a thing, do it well, and you will have praised God. When you sing a hymn, you praise God: but what can your tongue do if your heart is far from God? Have you finished singing a hymn and are about to dine? Avoid all excess in eating, and you will have praised God. Are you going to sleep? Donât get up to do evil, and you will have praised God. Are you conducting business? Donât defraud your neighbour, and you will have praised God. Are you cultivating your fields? Donât quarrel, and you will have praised God. By the goodness of your actions, you have a way of praising God all day long.
Our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, will teach us to work better every day, fulfilling Godâs will. Holy Mary, O good Mother, whenever we need it, may we hear your gentle reproach at the bottom of our hearts, telling us that time doesnât belong to us, because it belongs to our heavenly Father.