Honeymoon Phase

Participating in the work of Christ building up the Kingdom

09/03/2018

Luke 4:16-30 Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

There’s an old saying that suggests: If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. I feel very fortunate to be a Catholic priest and I absolutely love what I do and so it never feels like “work,” even when I get up at 4:30 a.m. to write my homily on Labor Day! When you are employed in a “labor of love” it no longer feels like labor. I have enjoyed having Fr. Stephen around and watching his reactions and how much he relishes being a baby priest. We call that the “honeymoon phase.” But for me I have been in the honeymoon phase for twenty-two years. The priesthood has never felt tiresome or troublesome to me.

When I arrived here at I.C. Church almost five years ago, I tried to help our church staff see that they, too, are employed in a labor of love. I explained that no matter what their specific tasks each day – as a custodian, or as a bookkeeper, or as a secretary, etc. – their ultimate job is bringing people closer to Christ. At the end of each day when they get in their car to drive home, they should ask themselves: “Did I bring someone closer to Christ today?” Maybe through a welcoming smile, or listening to someone’s problems, or helping them register as a member, or balancing the books, or scheduling a dinner with Fr. John, imperceptibly, but nevertheless inevitably, we bring people closer to Christ. I hope they feel like working for the church is a labor of love – the love of Christ – and it does not feel like work.

We see the specific nature of Jesus’ job in the gospel today, as he reads the profound prophecy of Isaiah. Our Lord did not merely love what he did every day, he was love itself, love incarnate and walking on two legs. His each and every action, his whispered words, his deep sighs and even his heartbeats were but an exterior, earthly manifestation of his interior, eternal mission, a labor of love entrusted to him by the Father. We read: “Jesus stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.’” That perfectly summarizes Jesus’ job but also suggests his joy, even though is native town rejected him and wanted to kill him. But even in the face of such rejection, I don’t believe that felt like “work” for our Lord. Why? Well because Jesus always loved what he did, indeed, he was love on two legs, and therefore he was always on his “honeymoon phase.”

On this Labor Day, may I invite you to look at your own labor – your career or occupation or employment – also as an opportunity to bring people closer to Christ? You do not have to be a church secretary or a Catholic priest, but any honest work can be offered to God as a labor of love, your sacrifice to build up the Kingdom of God on earth. St. Josemaria Escriva, who started a movement called Opus Dei, which is Latin for “work of God,” said your office desk, your operating room table, your kitchen counter, your classroom chalkboard, can all be like “altars” where you offer your work as a sacrifice acceptable to God, just like Jesus did for thirty years as a humble carpenter, working with his hands. In that way, you become a little more Christ-like because your daily work becomes an exterior and earthly manifestation of an interior and eternal mission, a labor of love entrusted to you by the Father. You may start to feel like you, too, are in the “honeymoon phase” of life.

And you know what they say: when you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.

Praised be Jesus Christ!