Taking the Time to Make a Difference

It was a surprising headline: “Love for Work Is a Good Sign, Says Pope.” Pope Benedict XVI was speaking to the people in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience May 27. The pope is doing a series of talks focused on some of the notable people of the Middle Ages, including St. Theodore, a Byzantine monk and abbot of the Studios Monastery in Constantinople. In addition to faith, hope and charity, St. Theodore wrote about another important virtue: "'philergia,' that is, love for work." Pope Benedict said that Theodore saw love for work as "a criterion to prove the quality of personal devotion." The thinking is that "One who is fervent in material commitments, who works assiduously . . . is the same in the spiritual realm." Apparently what he was saying to the monks was that prayer and contemplation are important, but so is work – and more than that, work is a means to encounter God. Pope Benedict noted how St. Theodore went so far as to speak of work as a type of “liturgy” — “And precisely in this way the world of work is humanized and man, through work, becomes more himself, closer to God.” St. Theodore said the work of the monks should not serve the comfort of the monks, but should be destined for the help of the poor. Work is not just for oneself, but for the common good.

* * *

Such ideas are not the usual stuff of writings today. Work is often seen as drudgery, a necessary evil that provides good money, or maybe almost good enough money. A neighbor once told me why some of his co-workers typically showed up at work only four days a week. “Because they can’t get by on three,” he said. Work for others seems to be an addiction — and that is certainly not a healthy kind of love. What strikes me about the comments quoted from St. Theodore is the parallel thinking of Cardinal Joseph Cardijn, whose life and ministry were the inspiration for the Christian Family Movement, the Young Christian Workers, the Young Christian Students and others who pursue a life of “Observe, Judge and Act.” Even in some of the terrible times and dangerous factories of the early Industrial Revolution, Cardijn told young Christian workers that “Your lathe is your altar.” Australian Bishop Kevin Manning spoke in 1998 about a spirituality of work that “was developed by the late Cardinal Cardijn . . . who enriched the lives of so many young workers around the world by teaching them that their working lives have an eternal value; that their lathes or work stations are an extension of the altar in the Church, and that their sacrifices are linked to the Sacrifice of Christ.” Bishop Manning went on to point out that “St. Joseph's example teaches that man's work is never extraneous to God's plan. Sanctification comes when the person works in harmony with the Creator, as did Joseph, the silent worker in the home of Nazareth.”

* * *

What is your experience of work? Balanced with prayer and contemplation and family and community? Or out of balance. Is your workplace your altar? Or just a cross? Does it lead to sanctification? Or frustration? A liturgy? Or empty ritual? A useful means of judging work might be drawn from St. Theodore’s teaching, that work is not just for your own benefit, but for the common good. Take the time to make certain that the fruit of your work is shared by others. Do what you can as employee or employer, manager or part-timer, to make your workplace human and holy.

* * *

Pope Benedict XVI was quoted in a story distributed by the Zenit news agency in Rome. Bishop Manning’s comments are published at www.ad2000.com.au

Send your comments about "Taking Time to Make a Difference" to . Contact about subscribing for your newspaper.

Share this article on Facebook! Click here.