We have touched several times in our catecheses on the topic of our cooperation with God. We speak about spiritual growth and strive to move something forward in our lives. But what is the point? After all, the one who climbs a mountain is indeed closer to the light, yet he is almost as far from the sun as the one who stays below. We know well that we cannot ascend to God, but God descended to us to save us. And we also know that although God redeemed us without our consent, he will not save us against our will. Therefore, in spiritual literature, authors continually reflect on the relationship between God’s action and human action. Human effort is called “ascesis,” and union with God “mysticism.” In this context, these words take on an entirely new meaning. Ascesis not as something negative—self-denial and renunciation—but as the human contribution. What can I do so that God can work more effectively in me? What obstacle can I remove so that he can be realized in me? Ascesis is thus the renunciation of everything that prevents me from drawing near to God. And mysticism is not some incomprehensible revelations that no one understands, but the acceptance of God, union with him.
Naturally, we would like to give up the daily duties we must do and that exhaust us and rob us of time for prayer and the strength to grow spiritually. Therefore we live in a kind of tension—our desire for spiritual growth and the daily monotonous reality. What to do about it? The Lord invites us to salvation not by snatching us out of the world, but by teaching us how we can transform everyday activities into an instrument of our salvation. Thus, our effort should not be aimed primarily at escaping reality to gain more time and space for spiritual life, but at transforming the daily routine into a place of encounter with the Lord.
How to do this? The Christian tradition, unlike the pagan one, has a completely different view of work. The pagan tradition once saw work as something unworthy of a person because it binds him to matter. Physical work enslaves the spirit, attaching it to matter. Therefore, a free person was to devote himself to the liberal arts, while servile work was left to slaves who, according to ancient thought, were incapable of rising to higher perfection. Today’s pagan culture sees work as a means of livelihood. It sees no other value in it than self-realization and providing for one’s living. A person thus works because the work is enjoyable and fulfilling, or as a necessary evil to earn money. In both cases, it does not matter what one does; what matters is that it fulfills him, or that he earns money. Otherwise, he tries to avoid work, because he sees no other meaning in it.
This mentality is incompatible with faith. God reveals himself to us as someone who works. He creates the earth and sustains it in existence. The priests of the Old Testament work, the apostles work, and even Christ himself worked for most of his life. God works. We are created in God’s image; therefore, we too are created for work. This point is extremely important. Many of you long for a deeper spiritual life and strive to carve out more time for prayer. You long to go more often into silence, to adoration. But circumstances do not allow it. What then? The Lord invites us to discover in work the possibility of union with him—mysticism.
The first condition for this is to act according to God’s will. Otherwise, our life would make no sense within the great “liturgy of the world,” where everything moves precisely according to the plan of the One who governs the universe (Theodoret of Cyrus). From this it follows that every task of ours, when it is in its proper place, is the most important thing. At this moment, nothing better exists than to do what ought to be done. Therefore, according to St. John Berchmans, one of the essential elements of spirituality is to do what you are supposed to do. Duty in its proper place is the best act of piety. This gives us hope. Even a mother at home, whose life constantly revolves around her child and who often hardly has time to go to the restroom, let alone withdraw somewhere into silence and meditate undisturbed, need not despair. Changing and nursing the child at the right time is the best religious act. Work is in fact an expression of love for people. If I do my work honestly and responsibly, I am expressing love for people through it. And such work transforms me.
The other day an accountant complained to me. She had witnessed an indifference that saddened her. A request came from the court to the tax office to provide information from a tax return. It concerned determining a person’s income so that appropriate child support could be set. The clerk, who at that moment had nothing to do, opened the request and filed it away. “I have 30 days to respond.” He did not consider at all that some woman alone at home with a small child might be in financial need and need the money as soon as possible. He has 30 days by law. Even from this example we can see how work can be an act of love and how it can shape me and make me sensitive if I do not act merely mechanically but also reflect.
Of course, material work is directed toward matter. If it is to become spiritual, it must have a spiritual goal so that its effects are manifested in the spiritual realm. For this, a good intention is needed—one that transforms matter into spiritual value.
Let us explain this with an example. Someone asked three people who were doing the same job on a construction site, “What are you doing?” The first answered, “I’m shaping a stone.” The second, “I’m making a window.” The third, “I’m building a cathedral.” All three did the same thing, yet it was not the same. Between the first and the last there is a chasm. In intention, in attitude, in commitment, and in the resulting feeling about the work. We can see something similar in our lives. Writing a dictation with a child can be a senseless task that I must do because it must be learned so he doesn’t get a failing grade. If he learned it on his own, I wouldn’t lose so much time and I could be with my child in other ways. I would like to sit with him, talk, give him an experience that is important. Instead, I am wasting time here and struggling with him. Or it can be the provision of education. I study with him so that he becomes educated. Or it can be preparation for salvation. I am here and I study with him because I want to help him on the path to salvation. And for that one must grow in virtues. One of them is patience. He grows when he learns the “senseless” y’s, and I grow when I sit here patiently with him. I need not yearn to finish the study as soon as possible so that I finally have time for him; I am already sitting with him and I already have time for him. By the way, a question: do children rebel against studying precisely because they know that then the parent will sit down with them and they will be together? The parent is with the child for three hours until the material is learned, and all the while grumbles about why the child doesn’t learn on his own, how that time could be better used. But if the child learned the subject alone in half an hour, would he have the parent’s attention for himself in another activity for the whole three hours?
I know, it is not easy to motivate oneself in this way and always keep in mind the deeper meaning for which I act. Nor is it necessary. For a deed to be meritorious, I do not need an actual intention, that is, one I am consciously aware of during the activity. A virtual one is enough. That is, one I awaken in myself, occasionally remember, do not necessarily think about while performing the action, yet it still influences me. In this way the intention becomes a habitus—clothing. This is my identity, this is my conviction, in whose spirit I act. Therefore one of the ways to live in the world and have a spiritual life is to acquire such habitus—garments. To learn to give everyday activity a deeper meaning by realizing how it helps me on the path to salvation.
Which are the activities I perform every day?What deeper meaning could I give them?
What might help me to remind myself of that deeper meaning?
