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“Responding to God’s Call” Retreat DAY SIX: WORK
Scripture Reading
“Then shall the just answer him saying: Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you; thirsty, and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger, and took you in? Or naked, and covered you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you. And the king, answering shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me.” (Mt. 25:37-40)
Meditation
St. Teresa of Avila wisely remarks: “God is also found among the pots and pans.” Many people who consider a religious vocation think they are going to join a community and spend a good bit of the day in prayer and perhaps study. Again, this is a misconception. From cloistered life to active communities to the sacramental ministry in the case of a priest, a consecrated person’s day is taken up in a lot of work.
First, there is the work in the house which is necessary for the maintenance of any life lived by a large group of people. This includes manual labor, which entails things like cleaning toilets, washing dishes, preparing music for the Liturgy of the Hours, choir practice, yard work and all sorts of other things. There are many jobs in religious life which are not glamorous and can be extremely tiring physically. A person who would shrink from doing these sorts of jobs for others would find religious life very trying.
Many people think that the works of the community are like having a career. They enter with the idea that they will always be doing a certain kind of work and that the community has some obligation to them to prepare them for this work they want to do. There are no guarantees in religious or priestly life. One is chosen, one did not choose. Nor is the apostolate the same as career. All apostolic life has to be motivated by the Holy Spirit and involves a practical charity. The service of others must be the fruit of contemplation and not result from a mere human motive. No one should shrink from any service necessary for their apostolate as though it were beneath their dignity. Nor should they think that they will serve only one class or type of people. Graham Greene says in his novel about a fallen priest, The Power and the Glory, “Only a man with no children of his own can understand what it means to be the father of all.” If this is true for the priest ! it is also true for the religious.
Religious institutions may be religious but they are also institutions. One does not always get what one wants. There is sometimes injustice in the way one is treated. If one cannot live with injustice or misunderstanding, that person should not enter. Success in human work is not the touchstone of charity. One often learns more from failures than successes.
The virginal male or female must practice the same spiritual fatherhood or motherhood found in an earthly family, but towards the whole human race. Just as they do not give up spousal love but realize it on a higher more spiritual plane from the point of view of eternity itself, they do not give up spiritual parenting either, but realize it on a deeper more universal level. Though religious institutes are very solicitous for education, the degrees obtained are only means to be able to pursue this practical charity in a competent way. Though we must educate ourselves to serve others well in whatever apostolate the institute pursues for the good of the Church, the worth of all work done in religious life is gauged not by the human competency with which it is done or the success it achieves, but by the motivation of divine love, which inspires it.
One who enters religious life must have an active love for others and desire to serve, not to be served. Being a good servant is not easy. We have all had the experience in a restaurant where we either could not find a waiter or the waiter was constantly underfoot and invasive of privacy. A good servant serves when and where he is needed. If the service is not to his taste, he still does it if it is necessary for the well being of others.
Though it is normal to expect that when someone enters religious life that their specific talents will be developed and used for the community, there are no guarantees here and a person must realistically understand that God may direct them through the community to a very different work than they would have chosen for themselves. One needs to surrender the standards for judging the effectiveness of work, which are based in a worldly careerism. Instead one must ready to employ their talents to the full when and where God directs them. The pots and pans may not be the most glamorous place to exercise an apostolate, but without them very few apostolates would endure for long.
Points of Reference
Do I have a view of work which values the fact that it can be the fruit of contemplation?
Am I willing to surrender any idea of having a firmly fixed career?
Am I willing to limit my work for the needs of recreation or prayer?
Am I willing to gauge the effectiveness of my work not by what I accomplish but by the love with which I do it?
Can I suffer injustice or misunderstanding in the pursuit of work?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You told us that the works we do for the least brethren we do for You. Grant that I may always see You in my neighbor no matter what work I am doing for them. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
religiouslife.com
Scripture Reading
“Then shall the just answer him saying: Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you; thirsty, and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger, and took you in? Or naked, and covered you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you. And the king, answering shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me.” (Mt. 25:37-40)
Meditation
St. Teresa of Avila wisely remarks: “God is also found among the pots and pans.” Many people who consider a religious vocation think they are going to join a community and spend a good bit of the day in prayer and perhaps study. Again, this is a misconception. From cloistered life to active communities to the sacramental ministry in the case of a priest, a consecrated person’s day is taken up in a lot of work.
First, there is the work in the house which is necessary for the maintenance of any life lived by a large group of people. This includes manual labor, which entails things like cleaning toilets, washing dishes, preparing music for the Liturgy of the Hours, choir practice, yard work and all sorts of other things. There are many jobs in religious life which are not glamorous and can be extremely tiring physically. A person who would shrink from doing these sorts of jobs for others would find religious life very trying.
Many people think that the works of the community are like having a career. They enter with the idea that they will always be doing a certain kind of work and that the community has some obligation to them to prepare them for this work they want to do. There are no guarantees in religious or priestly life. One is chosen, one did not choose. Nor is the apostolate the same as career. All apostolic life has to be motivated by the Holy Spirit and involves a practical charity. The service of others must be the fruit of contemplation and not result from a mere human motive. No one should shrink from any service necessary for their apostolate as though it were beneath their dignity. Nor should they think that they will serve only one class or type of people. Graham Greene says in his novel about a fallen priest, The Power and the Glory, “Only a man with no children of his own can understand what it means to be the father of all.” If this is true for the priest ! it is also true for the religious.
Religious institutions may be religious but they are also institutions. One does not always get what one wants. There is sometimes injustice in the way one is treated. If one cannot live with injustice or misunderstanding, that person should not enter. Success in human work is not the touchstone of charity. One often learns more from failures than successes.
The virginal male or female must practice the same spiritual fatherhood or motherhood found in an earthly family, but towards the whole human race. Just as they do not give up spousal love but realize it on a higher more spiritual plane from the point of view of eternity itself, they do not give up spiritual parenting either, but realize it on a deeper more universal level. Though religious institutes are very solicitous for education, the degrees obtained are only means to be able to pursue this practical charity in a competent way. Though we must educate ourselves to serve others well in whatever apostolate the institute pursues for the good of the Church, the worth of all work done in religious life is gauged not by the human competency with which it is done or the success it achieves, but by the motivation of divine love, which inspires it.
One who enters religious life must have an active love for others and desire to serve, not to be served. Being a good servant is not easy. We have all had the experience in a restaurant where we either could not find a waiter or the waiter was constantly underfoot and invasive of privacy. A good servant serves when and where he is needed. If the service is not to his taste, he still does it if it is necessary for the well being of others.
Though it is normal to expect that when someone enters religious life that their specific talents will be developed and used for the community, there are no guarantees here and a person must realistically understand that God may direct them through the community to a very different work than they would have chosen for themselves. One needs to surrender the standards for judging the effectiveness of work, which are based in a worldly careerism. Instead one must ready to employ their talents to the full when and where God directs them. The pots and pans may not be the most glamorous place to exercise an apostolate, but without them very few apostolates would endure for long.
Points of Reference
Do I have a view of work which values the fact that it can be the fruit of contemplation?
Am I willing to surrender any idea of having a firmly fixed career?
Am I willing to limit my work for the needs of recreation or prayer?
Am I willing to gauge the effectiveness of my work not by what I accomplish but by the love with which I do it?
Can I suffer injustice or misunderstanding in the pursuit of work?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You told us that the works we do for the least brethren we do for You. Grant that I may always see You in my neighbor no matter what work I am doing for them. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
religiouslife.com