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OPINIONS / COLUMNS
(July
28 – August 3, 2008) EDITORIAL Work and rest THIS is the regular rhythm in
our life. Sorry for sounding dated, but work and rest are, as an old Sinatra
song renders it, like love and marriage that should not be decoupled just like
the horse and the carriage. But if we have to understand this life pattern of ours in the context
of our Christian faith, as we should, we will realize that they necessarily
have to be spent always with God, never away or independently from him. This point is echoed abundantly in many epistles of Another one: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do
all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) Yet
another: “Whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with him.” (1 Thes 5,10) Since our life is supposed to be a life with God, we should do
everything to keep our Christian bearing even in our work and in our rest. This is no easy task, of course. A good grounding in right doctrine is
required. A lot of discipline is involved, plus, certain skills with the
necessary attitudes and dispositions. Our problem is that we tend to scatter our attention to the wind. We
are easily dominated by tunnel-visioned passions. The theology behind work and rest is quite known already. And yet I
wonder how many of us seriously take it to heart, and really live that
theology. A friend, who manages a call center with some 200 young men and women
under him, once expressed the concern that some of these young professionals
do not have the proper work attitudes. They also have dubious ways of
resting. A housewife sometimes asks me how she could relate her household chores
to God. How can she find God in her dish-washing and house-cleaning, in her
cooking and laundry? A college student tells me that he is so caught up with the pressures
in school that the only thing that drives him is the need to pass his
subjects and to eke time to unwind with friends, like having night outs and
other gimmicks. God becomes a formal ornament with hardly has any impact on
his life. Of course, many professional men—imagine the businessmen and
politicians—exposed to many temptations and perplexing moral predicaments in
their work wonder how God can be made realistically relevant in their work. I’ve also met quite a number who have tried to live in God’s presence,
striving to put love into their work, but with very varying degrees of
success. There’s definitely a great need to sustain some kind of campaign to
inculcate in people the spiritual and supernatural character of our work and
rest, no matter how mundane, insignificant or full of moral dangers they may
be. The usual problem is that many do not consciously conform
their work and rest to the requirements of their faith. They just flow in
some kind of a groove and routine, moved simply by some vague inertia that
has hardly to do with faith. We have to remind ourselves very often to break away from this inertial
frame of mind. We have to remember that our work, as long as it is not a sin,
is part of God’s providence in which we are asked to participate. Our work has to be done always with love for God and love for others.
It’s love that brings us closer to them and will make us understand more
deeply our work’s importance and relevance in everybody’s life. Our rest should also be resting in God, for our Lord himself said:
“Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
(Mt 11,28) What actually tires us is our pride as manifested in getting
increasingly absorbed in our own selves, weaving all sorts of pressures and
anxieties, and forgetting there’s only one thing necessary—to be with God in
order to be with others in intimate communion of life and love. We have to continually check
ourselves whether unknowingly we are drifting toward self-absorption. We need
to pray and to offer sacrifices to purify and
discipline our flesh that tends to make war with the spirit, and with God. (Fr.
Roy Tito Cimagala) Ilocos
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