Today we celebrate St. Joseph the Worker.
This particular feast gives us a pause to reflect on the value and meaning of work.
How often in our society we look upon work as an annoyance. We need it. But at the same time we complain about it and we see in it something negative, that which we do in order to be able to get on with our life, to retire and finally do what we have always wanted to do.
This is unfortunate, considering most of our waking hours are spent, well, at work.
Work is energy and effort put forth to accomplish a goal.
What goal are we seeking to accomplish while at work? Is it just about making a living, earning dollars?
If so then that doesn't make a whole lot of "cents", if you get me to spend all that time and energy wasting our life in hopes for the tomorrow which may never arrive. How often have I encountered in my life the words, "Father, we were going to retire and enjoy our life together but we never got the chance because of ...usually sudden death.
Work!
We are called not to make a living but rather to make a life, and that should include not exclude the work we do daily.
Think about JEsus in the gospels. How often does JEsus in order to get us to better understand the kingdom, to really begin to picture the cut and contour of the kingdom does he use this parables that all revolve around labor, ordinary work.
Almost every parable involves some aspect of work: shepherds searching for sheep, fisherman casting their drag net, servants tending to the household, vineyard work trimming the vine, sowers sowing seed, stewards tending to their duty and the list goes on.
In this ordinary events of work, labor that the kingdom takes shape.
IT is in the work of our hands that we come face to face with the kingdom of God breaking through into our lives.
In fact the church teaches that because God presents his creative life in the form of work and rest so to does work become an encounter with that creative presence daily.
Work matters, not because it leads to a better tomorrow where we can sit on our laurels and live off our retirement and our investment but because in and through the work of our hands we imitate God and thus open our hearts and our world to his kingdom breaking through in real time.
We are at the service of something greater than our 401K. Something we must remember.
We are not just making a living but we are truly making life all for the glory of God!
Action steps for daily work:
1)pray for the people you work with and work for
2)Look for opportunities to serve with the work of your hands
3)allow the sacrifices you make to have an impact in eternity even as they impact your life here and now
4)Be generous and trust that your creativity stems from God who creates
5)Let your leisure truly be a holy down time of reflection and recollection
Above is a picture of my little nephew embracing the sun of the new day before the heads off to school. Thought I might sure with you all. Kids get it. We adults are bit slow in the uptake.
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