Finding God in our work

Matthew Harrison

September 6, 2010
As it has been for well over 120 years in Canada, this first Monday in September is Labour Day.
ChristworkingjI suspect we won't spend a lot of time reflecting on work.
We'll be busy flipping burgers, or soaking up the last day of vacation before returning to school or the regular routine of the workplace.
But it's worth considering the dignity of work for a moment.  After all, it will be a significant part of our growth in holiness.
Fr. Bob Wild is a Madonna House priest and postulator for the cause of canonization for Madonna House founder Servant of God Catherine Doherty (you can watch my September 2009 discussion with him about her spirituality on our Catholic Focus page).
In the Madonna House publication Restoration, Fr. Bob offers an interesting reflection on the dignity of work.  You may want to take a minute to read it over.
The Nazareth Way to God
by Fr. Bob Wild.
We probably do not think enough about Nazareth. Most of the time we meditate on the public life of Jesus which was, after all, only a very small part of his total life.
If we had been in Nazareth and knew who Jesus was, some time around his eighteenth or nineteenth birthday we might have said something like this: "Well, you’re going on twenty soon. Don’t you think it’s about time that you started to move out a little, maybe preach in the evenings after work or something?"
I imagine that Jesus would have answered something like this: "No. I have come to be man, simply man."
"Most people on earth will spend their whole lives simply working from dawn till dusk. I want to help them realize that they can come to my Father in this way, by simply working, caring for their families, accomplishing the tasks of life that God has entrusted to them."
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