The Work

Seeing worship as our highest form of work

09/05/2022

LK 6:6-11 On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up and stand before us.” And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Looking around at them all, he then said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so and his hand was restored. But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

Today is Labor Day and I want to say a few things about labor and work from a Christian perspective. Why? Well, because from a secular, worldly view, work sometimes gets a bad wrap. Business owners are suspicious of employees, who they think just want more pay and less hours. Employees don’t trust the owners thinking they only want employees to get less pay and work more hours. Capitalists don’t trust union bosses, and the union bosses distrust the entrepreneurs and executives.

That is why I decided to become a priest: I only have to work one day a week! I had a friend who worked to unionize different businesses, and he said one day he wanted to unionize Catholic priests who worked for the Church. I said that would be like unionizing children against their parents. And I swear I saw a twinkle in his eyes. Labor Day was started by the labor movement to give laborers a leg-up in the work world, and give labor a little love.

Let me say two things about labor from a Christian perspective. First, I learned the value of labor and honest work from a new movement in the Catholic Church called “Opus Dei”. That is Latin and it means “The Work of God”. The people who belong to this movement simply call themselves, “The Work”. It was started back in the 1920’s by St. Josemaria Escriva de Belaguer in Spain. He was a priest who felt deeply that God was calling everyone to be saint: that is the end-goal of the Christian life. But not everyone could become a priest or a nun, the usual path to holiness (people thought).

St. Josemaria, on the other hand, believed that the surest path to sainthood was labor and work. In other words, each person has a job to do, and when we do that job for God – and not for a promotion or a paycheck – we grow in holiness. Any honest employment – a ditch-digger, a corporate executive, a stay-at-home-mom, even a priest who only works one day – could become a saint. But notice the real magic is in the motivation: why you work. You do it for God and not just for yourself. Suddenly, sainthood was available for everyone, as long as you work and work for God.

I learned about Opus Dei while I was studying at the University of Dallas. On Friday nights some of the students would gather at a residence off-campus belonging to The Work. We entered an exquisitely decorated chapel for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We listened to a reflection given by one of the priests of The Work. And then we sat at the dining room table for a modest meal. I learned a lot in those Friday evening conferences, but mostly I learned to love labor as a path to holiness, even for a guy who only works on Sundays. The take-home message of Opus Dei is that no one has an excuse not to be a saint.

The second Christian perspective comes from Sacred Scripture. Did you know that Adam and Even were commanded to work even before the Fall? We read in Gn 2:15: “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.” That is, Adam was given a job to do, namely, care for and cultivate the garden. Sometimes we mistakenly think that work was the result of the first sin, and before that Adam and Eve just pranced around in their fig leaves and did a whole lot of nothing. But man and woman were created for work, and through our honest work we discover our gifts and talents and make the world a better place, a garden to live in. The Bible teaches that work is part and parcel of the human condition, and not a necessary evil.

The second Scripture passage is one of my favorites, Jn 5:17. Jesus has just cured a man who has been ill for 38 years, but he did it on the Sabbath, when devout Jews were not supposed to work. When the Jews ask Jesus why he cured on the Sabbath, our Lord replied: “My Father is at work, so I am at work.” But I believe the real point in Jesus curing on the Sabbath, and that being his own “work”, is to show that Jesus heals us so we can have the health and strength to worship.

Most people think we work for five days and get Saturday and Sunday off. But the truth of things is that our jobs and labor all week can become our daily worship when we offer it to God. Our office desk, our kitchen counter, our football field, is our “altar" where we offer our sacrifices to God five days a week. But that is all just a dress rehearsal, a practice. On Sunday, we take up our true work, which is worship. That is why Jesus cured the man on the Sabbath, so he could return to the Temple to worship.

And that healed man could say truly: "My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” Worship is our highest and best form of work. And in that sense, all Christians only work one day a week.

Praised be Jesus Christ!