In Conversation with God – Volume 3 Part 1: Weeks 1 - 6 in Ordinary Time by Fernandez Francis

Author:Fernandez, Francis [Fernandez, Francis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scepter UK Ltd
Published: 2011-12-04T05:00:00+00:00

30.2 Jesus and the world of work.

Our Lord showed that He was familiar with the world of work. In his preaching He frequently used images, parables and comparisons taken from the occupations, trades and professions engaged in and lived by himself and his fellow country men.

Those who hear him understand the language He uses very well. Jesus did his work in Nazareth with human perfection, which means finishing it off thoroughly, and carrying it out with professional competence. This is why, when He returns to his home town, He is identified by his trade, as the carpenter. Today He teaches us the superlative value of ordinary life, of work and of the tasks we have to carry out each day.[428]

If our dispositions are really sincere, God will always grant us the supernatural light to imitate Our Lord’s example. We will seek not only to accomplish our work well, but through it willingly and lovingly to practise an abundant self-denial and sacrifice. Our personal examination of conscience before God and our conversation with him will often turn to those tasks that occupy so much of our time. We have to have the courage to consider this matter deeply. We have to do our work conscientiously, making our time fruitful without giving way to laziness. We must sustain our desire to improve our professional preparedness each day, to look after the details of our daily tasks, to embrace with love the cross and the weariness that each day’s toil brings with it.

Work, any honest work done conscientiously, makes us sharers in Creation and co-redeemers with Christ. This truth, Blessed John Paul II taught, by which man through work participates in the work of God himself, his Creator, has been particularly brought to the fore by Jesus Christ, by that very Jesus before whom many of his first hearers in Nazareth were astonished and said: Where did this man get all this? How did He come by such wisdom? ... Is not this the carpenter? (Mark 6:2-5)[429]

The years Jesus spent in Nazareth are an open book where we learn to sanctify each day’s occupation. Even enforced absence from work, as through illness, for example ... is a situation willed or permitted by God in order that we may practise the supernatural and human virtues.[430]Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.[431]

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