The Origin and Nature of Work

[Bubba_Switzler]

Bubba, what did the first or three sentences from the 2nd reading of today’s Mass say?

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.
In all circumstances give thanks,
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

Prayer is conversation with God…and we should be praying always. And the only way to “get anything done” and do what God commands us…is to turn our work into prayer. So we offer our work before we do it…perhaps as our attention flags in the middle of the work…we might pick up the conversation again.

The essential thing is our desire and effort to try to unify our day with Him, through prayer. Offerings are just another form of this.
Fasting is just another form.

Read your last own last sentences again…you do with God, what you do with your friend.

You do understand this very well. God is our great Friend. He desires the same intimacy (greater actually) with us as we have with our dearest friends. He wants to help us deal with the world.

You understand this supernatural view of work quite well. Hats off.

Some work will continue to be back breaking…doing it in unity with Christ (for all manner of intentions…endless really) takes the edge off of it. We suffer with Him, for Him, for others, for our own sins, the sins of others across time and space. etc.

When we fail…it really doesn’t matter at all…IF we gave it our all and our intention was to love God. He owns the results.

So we should never “give in” to discouragement. We may sense its approach…but we should give it no heed. We are doing God’s work…and as long as we use the means He gave me (my intelligence, my muscles, my will, perhaps involving my friends…God loves to see His children cooperating on projects) He owns the results. He will look after us. This doesn’t mean we stop working at all.

Opus Dei can be summarized in 3 words. Pray, Work, and Smile. We make God pleased when we do these 3 things with Him out of child-like love of Him.

Please let me know if I am not clear. I think we’re on the same page.

I suspect at least part of my confusion arises from the fact that there are so many aspects to this. I was perhaps expecting something simpler.

I don’t presume to know how my prayer for someone in Philllipines helps them so I won’t pretend to understand how my gifted suffering will.

I have no issue with the idea of avoiding needless suffering so, although I find mortificaton quite peculiar, I certainly appreciate the virtue of letting go of scrupulosity and moving on after bad decisions.

There is, though, a fine line between accepting failure and not caring about consequences. As the Serenity Prayer goes, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference.” There is a human tendency to focus on process or theory and not think things through in order to avoid responsibility for the results.

The idea of doing things with God that we would do with a friend is interesting, I will give that more thought.

 

[Edward_H]

I suspect at least part of my confusion arises from the fact that there are so many aspects to this. I was perhaps expecting something simpler.

I don’t presume to know how my prayer for someone in Philllipines helps them so I won’t pretend to understand how my gifted suffering will.

I have no issue with the idea of avoiding needless suffering so, although I find mortificaton quite peculiar, I certainly appreciate the virtue of letting go of scrupulosity and moving on after bad decisions.

There is, though, a fine line between accepting failure and not caring about consequences. As the Serenity Prayer goes, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference.” There is a human tendency to focus on process or theory and not think things through in order to avoid responsibility for the results.

The idea of doing things with God that we would do with a friend is interesting, I will give that more thought.

I can sort of see why someone might think the matter is complicated.

But it’s really not. We simply try to talk to God as frequently in possible, often in just short bursts…as tasks demand more attention the conversation quiets down…but your intention to stay close to God remains. “virtual intention” is good enough with God.

How God distributes graces across time and space is up to Him.

Mortification is merely another form of prayer, unity with Christ, Who to His Father - who sees all time as one present moment - is still suffering and offering Himself on our behalf.

This is how we can be “Simons of Cyrene” in our ordinary day. I can help Christ - who was true God, but also true man. I can offer my work just as Simon’s puny effort must have been a balm for the suffering Jesus.

People “mortify” themselves all the time…for non-supernatural reasons. They don’t call it mortification…but they take on voluntary suffering to lose weight, look good, train their will (e.g. in the military), etc.

So some Catholics simply give their ordinary sufferings a supernatural intention. Wonderful “use” of small sufferings. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, smiling when I don’t feel like smiling, jumping out of bed as soon as I wake up…these little pains are given nanosecond intentions…Thank you God, I am sorry God, Help me more, My Father! In the split second…I have brought God into my otherwise effortful day.

Right…we do all we can…and in great serenity let God take care of the results/rest.

Cheers.

This way though is quite simple…and it gives great serenity…because God is allowed to get nearer to our hearts, mind, soul…at our invitation throughout the day.

I used to be in the Marines…and during my fitness tests…I’d pray…“I’ll do the first 2 miles, Lord…you finish up the last one”. I’d talk with him during the exertion…and it made all the difference. Sometimes I’d ask Our Lady to run with us! A run became a very pleasant experience.

 

[Bubba_Switzler]

I’m going to focus on one point where I’m still struggling to understand. Otherwise I appreciate everything you’ve said, it’s helped me to understand the Opus Dei view of sanctifying work much better.

Mortification is merely another form of prayer, unity with Christ, Who to His Father - who sees all time as one present moment - is still suffering and offering Himself on our behalf.

This is how we can be “Simons of Cyrene” in our ordinary day. I can help Christ - who was true God, but also true man. I can offer my work just as Simon’s puny effort must have been a balm for the suffering Jesus.

People “mortify” themselves all the time…for non-supernatural reasons. They don’t call it mortification…but they take on voluntary suffering to lose weight, look good, train their will (e.g. in the military), etc.

So some Catholics simply give their ordinary sufferings a supernatural intention. Wonderful “use” of small sufferings. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, smiling when I don’t feel like smiling, jumping out of bed as soon as I wake up…these little pains are given nanosecond intentions…Thank you God, I am sorry God, Help me more, My Father! In the split second…I have brought God into my otherwise effortful day.

The non-supernatural “mortifications” all have in common a non-supernatural purpose. I lose weight to be healthy (or look good), I train to perform better, etc. In fact, we could make a very long list of ways that you could choose to suffer either for long-term benefit or for the benefit of others. Given this tremendous menu of life’s possibilities, I cannot understand the deliberate self-infliction of suffering or even inconvenience. And this is not just Opus Dei, I’ve long scratched my head at the monastic life, especially those who wear sackcloth and live in caves in the desert.

(I have another Opus Dei question that I think you could answer but it is way off topic so I’ll post it another time elsewhere.)

 

[Edward_H]

I’m going to focus on one point where I’m still struggling to understand. Otherwise I appreciate everything you’ve said, it’s helped me to understand the Opus Dei view of sanctifying work much better.

The non-supernatural “mortifications” all have in common a non-supernatural purpose. I lose weight to be healthy (or look good), I train to perform better, etc. In fact, we could make a very long list of ways that you could choose to suffer either for long-term benefit or for the benefit of others. Given this tremendous menu of life’s possibilities, I cannot understand the deliberate self-infliction of suffering or even inconvenience. And this is not just Opus Dei, I’ve long scratched my head at the monastic life, especially those who wear sackcloth and live in caves in the desert.

(I have another Opus Dei question that I think you could answer but it is way off topic so I’ll post it another time elsewhere.)

Sorry I may not have been clear. Comparison

Man wakes up very early, against his desire to sleep, and goes and runs 5 miles so he can look good (e.g., vanity). Intention is to look good, giving in to the vice of vanity.

Woman wakes up every early, against her desire to sleep, and goes and runs 5 miles so that she can push off laziness and selfishness, strengthening her will to love her family because she loves God. That’s a proper mortification. Offering the unpleasant for both good natural reason and a supernatural reason.

Fasting is biblical. And it’s deliberate inflicting of pain, albeit not all that much.

Fasting is mortification. Been done in the Church since the very beginning.

Even St Paul speaks about mortification.

 

[Bubba_Switzler]

Man wakes up very early, against his desire to sleep, and goes and runs 5 miles so he can look good (e.g., vanity). Intention is to look good, giving in to the vice of vanity.

Woman wakes up every early, against her desire to sleep, and goes and runs 5 miles so that she can push off laziness and selfishness, strengthening her will to love her family because she loves God. That’s a proper mortification. Offering the unpleasant for both good natural reason and a supernatural reason.

Fasting is biblical. And it’s deliberate inflicting of pain, albeit not all that much.

Fasting is mortification. Been done in the Church since the very beginning.

Even St Paul speaks about mortification.

I understand that fasting is Biblical (Jesus, among others, did it, though the Pharisees criticized him for not doing it enough) and I accept that mortification is sufficiently similar to fasting for our purposes here.

I understand the contrast you are showing between the man and the woman.

Here is where I am having trouble with this: instead of running this woman could wake up early to do the chores around the house or do the chores for her invalid neighbor, i.e. serving some constructive non-supernatural purpose with the appropriate work as prayer conversations as discussed earlier.

Even Simons of Cyrene, whom you mentioned several times, relieved Jesus of the weight of the cross.

 

[Mintaka]

This is a question of vocation, and what different people are called to do.

A person could be called to be a farmer with kids or a farmer who’s a monk.

A person could be called to run for health, to run for willpower, or to run for fun and only later discover that she has trained to run five miles to save somebody’s life.

The story of Mary and Martha at Bethany makes it clear that Jesus approves both of people working to help and serve others (Martha) and of people just studying and loving God (Mary). In fact, Mary isn’t being lazy but has picked out the better part. And people out on their own listening to God have always been favored by Him - God didn’t tell Elijah he was a lazy butt for walking all the way out to Sinai instead of doing something useful. In fact, God ordered him to do it.

OTOH, when Jesus came to see Lazarus in the tomb, it was Martha who identified Jesus and gave a statement of faith, so the folks serving others aren’t to be considered dumb bunnies, either.

Btw, the word used for Adam working in Eden was the same word used for serving as a priest in the Temple. (This is one of the big OT Bible themes - that originally, all adult males were meant to act as priests, but the privilege was lost through sin.)