14 June, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations for Every Day

The Divine Worker

1. Let us open the Gospel of St. John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing that has been made.” (John 1:1-3) The work of creation is attributed in a special way to the Eternal Word, the Son of God. He was the divine Worker Who created from nothing the sky, earth, and the marvels which they contain.

Then the Eternal Word of God became man. (John 1:14) But what position did He choose to occupy amongst us? He could have been born heir to the illustrious throne of Rome, the most powerful in all history. He could have been born at Athens amongst the philosophers of the Areopagus, who handed down through the centuries the light of human wisdom and beauty. But it was not likely that the Word of God should have abandoned, so to speak, the eternal glory of the Father in order to wear the mantle of petty human power. He had no need of this. He came amongst us to instruct us in the humility of the path to Heaven, not in the way of human greatness. He was born, therefore, as the son of an artisan, “the carpenter’s son,” (Mt. 13:55) and an artisan himself, “the carpenter, the son of Mary.” (Mark 6:3) According to the most ancient and most reliable tradition He was one of the many carpenters in the Palestinian countryside who were prepared to adapt themselves to whatever job arose, whether it was the making of a door, a handle for a hoe, or a plough. (Cf. Justin, Dial. Triph. 88: 8) From His youth, therefore, Jesus was a carpenter’s apprentice, and when St. Joseph died He carried on his trade and earned a livelihood for His Mother Mary and Himself.

It was only after many years of manual labour that Jesus ceased to be an artisan and dedicated Himself to work of the mind and heart. In the three years of His public life He was an Apostle of truth and goodness. In this way He sanctified every type of work, manual, intellectual, and spiritual.

The great lesson which Jesus wished to teach us is that every kind of work is good and noble. The manual labour of the farm-hand and of the artisan is a co-operation in the work of God’s creation. Spiritual labour is a co-operation in the work of the Redemption. Both were made holy by Jesus. Let those who work with their hands take inspiration from Jesus, Who subjected Himself for thirty years to all the sacrifices involved in manual labour. Let intellectuals and apostolic workers look to Jesus also, for when His Hour had come He sacrificed Himself in His apostolate and gave His life for us. In His regard the peasant’s hoe and the writer’s pen, the workman’s hammer and the priest’s stole, are all noble and holy. The only condition is that all should perform their duties conscientiously from the motive of the love of God and of their neighbour.

2. Work is both a right and an obligation which belongs to all men. In the beginning of creation, however, work was a pleasure for the human race and the earth yielded its fruits easily and readily. “The Lord God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it.” (Gen. 2:15) But, after Adam’s sin of rebellion, nature in its turn rebelled against man. Work was no longer merely a pleasure, but a chastisement and a dire necessity as well.

"Cursed be the ground because of you," God said to Adam. “In toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread...” (Gen. 3:17-19)

This commandment of God is binding upon everybody. Idleness is condemned as the source of evil. “Idleness is an apt teacher of mischief.” (Ecclus. 33:29) Everyone must engage in either mental or manual labour. These two kinds of work complement one another and are equally dignified and necessary. A man who works with his hands should not envy the man who works with his intellect. The mental worker should not despise nor consider himself superior to the manual labourer. We are all brothers and have been placed wherever we are by the designs of Providence. For this reason we should love and help one another.

3. We should accept our daily work and sanctify it with prayer as Jesus did. “To pray and to work” was the ancient motto of the Benedictines.

All work which is done with and for God becomes, as it were, a sacrament which purifies and sanctifies us. When we offer the sweat of our brow to God it becomes like holy water which washes away our faults, while our weariness is converted into prayer.

"Jesus, Divine Worker, bless me, help me, and make me holy."