He Did All Things Well
June 3, 2025
I expected the Church would be
celebrating her feast day but apparently there were a good number of women
arranging flowers and preparing the Church for the Solemnity of the Ascension
of the Lord the next day. Following are
a couple of photos I took to share with you.
My pleasant surprise was to see a statue of St. Josemaria among the few
statues of Our Lord, Our Lady and other saints.
I must confess that I was lucky that morning to have taken good shots in
just one try or two at the most. Following are the photos I took.
Let us try to recall together the background on the Visitation of Our Lady to her cousin Elizabeth. When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that God chose her to be the mother of His only begotten Son, Jesus, he also mentioned that her cousin Elizabeth who is advanced in years is with child on her sixth month. Instantly our Lady thought her cousin might need help and so she ran to be with her. And upon seeing each other the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt with joy. And that was supposed to be St John, the cousin of Jesus. Can you imagine St. John, 6 months in the womb of his mother already to doing his work as the precursor of Jesus the Messiah? He reacted to the presence of Jesus and made his mother aware of Jesus in the womb of Mary. Whereas Jesus is said to be twelve years old when He chose to stay behind to be with the intellectuals of Jerusalem to go about His father’s business? At twelve years old, Jesus was going about his Father’s business, working.
As I also mentioned following
now is the post that was replaced by the previous one for appropriateness of
occasion. You
know that soon after Pope Leo XIV appeared on the balcony, May 8, 2025, greeted
all of us Peace Be with You and smiled, paused to receive all our greetings and
applauses, delivered his address, shares of links appeared in social media
groups especially in the Philippines about Bishop Robert Francis Prevost’s
visits to the country as Prior of the Augustinian Order. And then there was a share of the homily of Msgr.
Robert Prevost, in the Mass celebration for the feast of St. Josemaria Escriva
in Chiclayo, June 27, 2022. I watched
this video, listened intently to the homily in Spanish and I was amazed at how
I understood every word of it. I was
edified at how well the Bishop captured the legacy of the saint of the ordinary
on the three essential teachings of St. Josemaria. I tried to get a full text
of the homily in English to share with you in a post after. I asked some friends if they could do the
same to facilitate the task for me. But
nobody did. I tried then to transcribe
the text from the ongoing translation during the homily itself. And I accomplished my wish.
Homily
of Msgr Robert Francis Prevost June 27, 2022 Mass celebration in Chiclayo, Peru
Dear Brothers and sisters, I greet you
all most cordially this evening, to the priests who are concelebrating with me,
to doctor Hugo Calienes, to whom I owe a thank you on a thoughtful gesture
which is very much appreciated, last night for the community of priests of the
diocese, to the principal of the Celbos school that is also with us, fathers,
mothers, children, and the community of priests in the diocese, and
families. I am very happy to find also
students from both schools. I feel a little bit compelled to speak in English a
little bit, because they speak English better than I do but then we will try to
communicate in the common language to all friends present.
Friends of St. Josemaria, it is with
great joy, that we gather together on this evening to celebrate and to give
thanks to God for the gift he has given us, granted to the Church in the person
of St. Josemaria, well known to you, as the saint of the ordinary. The three readings
that we have just listened to invite us to reflect on some of the most
important teachings of St. Josemaria’s legacy: the sanctification of work, the
divine filiation of Christians and the apostolate.
The first reading taken from Genesis
shows that the human being was created by God out of clay of the soil and
placed in Eden in order to work and cultivate it. The gift of labor appears from the first
moment of existence of man on earth. It is his role to play the part of
representative of God, for he is his image and likeness. In the care of the creation man is presented
as steward of the Garden of Eden. It is in work well performed where man
becomes the visible sign of God’s providence that manifests his loving care for
the creation. This is what St. Josemaria
preached constantly: ordinary work is a place
of encounter with God, it is the place of sanctification of oneself and others.
Finding God in our professional labors everyday demands, diligence and
perfection in order to offer it to the Lord as a pleasing offering. In this way the agents and the beneficiaries
of sanctified work are enriched in their human and supernatural development. As
we are reminded by St. Josemaria: To
sanctify our work, to sanctify oneself in our work, and to sanctify others
through our work.
Then the second reading which was taken
from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, for that text has reminded us of the
dignity that we all have: we are
children of God by adoption. Divine sonship is the basis of all of St. Josemaria’s
preaching. The awareness that we are God’s children impels the Christian to
total abandonment in divine providence, to total trust and simplicity in
dealing with God, in prayer daily, to a profound sense of the dignity of every
human being and the brotherhood among all men.
Furthermore a Christian love of the world and of the realities created
by God, and a serene optimism. To live convinced of our divine sonship makes us
want to strive to live always united with our Father and let us always seek to
do his will in the place where he has placed us, in the midst of our daily
occupation. Being children of God is the
reason for the joy of the Christian. The Christian is never alone, he feels
himself part of the immense family of the children of God. Divine sonship
causes us to value even more the immense gift of family, the human cradle and
school of faith. The consciousness of
being children of God also helps us to know how to live the painful situations
of life. When the Christian encounters the Cross along his way, he also knows
he is a child of God. He knows how to unite himself to Christ in the Cross, he
knows how to be crucified with him. That is sometimes one of the most
difficult, most painful lessons we learn in life. But maybe this year in this
celebration, more than ever before, after the two long years of the pandemic,
so many families afflicted by the disease, by death, by other diseases, by
forms of suffering, we have learned something more of what it means to know we
are united to Christ in suffering and on the Cross.
In the Gospel, there is Jesus who
invites the apostles to a new mission: to be fishermen of men, to make others
partakers of the happiness of having met with the Master. Our Lord gave a new
meaning to the ordinary work done by the Apostles. It is interesting, perhaps a
big challenge for us to reflect on. On the beginning of this new mission which
Christ gives to the apostles when he says to Peter “Go out into the deep” and
the first reaction of Peter is to doubt, protest, resist the word of the Lord;
something very human in fact, something that we also perhaps do in our lives.
And yet Peter, acknowledging himself to be sinner, heard, trusted, responded
with his human weakness, but in the end, by trusting in the word of Jesus
Christ. Jesus calls us likewise to serve, to love, to give our lives in service
to others. To this very thing we are all
called to, as St. Josemaria recalled: to
win souls for Christ through and from work daily, to make others to find Christ
and join him in the day to day, whether at school or at work, being teachers,
or in the work of being students, whether in the work that every one develops
as we are all called to be saints and to share through our testimony of life,
the faith, this devotion, this desire to follow Jesus Christ, to always trust
in him, in spite of the
difficulties. May this celebration in
honor of St. Josemaria Escriva help all of us to respond by trusting in the
Lord, offering to serve, imitating the example of Jesus Christ, who came not to
be served but to serve. Amen.
From
Google AI on the Theology of Work
Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, emphasized a theology of work that views work as an opportunity for holiness and service to God, rather than just a means of livelihood. He taught that Christians should strive to elevate the dignity of all work and use it as a way to build a more just and loving society.
Work as an opportunity for Holiness: Escriva believed that all legitimate work can
be sanctified when done with the right intention and attitude. He encouraged
Christians to see their daily work as a way to love God and their neighbor, and
to build a more Christian society.
The Dignity of Labor: Escriva stressed the importance of valuing
all forms of labor, regardless of how common or seemingly insignificant they
might seem. He believed that all work,
when done with dedication and integrity, can contribute to the common good.
Work as a Means of Service: Escriva taught that Christians should use
their work to serve others, particularly the poor and marginalized. He encouraged a spirit of generosity and
compassion in the workplace.
Christocentrism in the Workplace: Escriva’s theology of work is rooted in the
belief that Christ is the center of all things, including work. He encouraged Christians to see their work as
a way to imitate Christ’s life and example.
Advocacy for Justice: Escriva’s theology of work also includes a call for social justice. He believed that Christians should strive to create a more equitable and just society through their work and influence.
What
does it mean to sanctify work? (opusdei.org)
To sanctify work is to strive to do it
well, with professional competence, putting all of one’s talents, intelligence,
will and affection into the work at hand.
However, it is also a matter of one’s intention at the moment of
working. It is worth asking
oneself: Why am I doing this? What is the point of doing it well when no
one sees me?
1.
Are we made to work, or is work a punishment?
Man is made to work, not only because it
is written in the book of Genesis that he was created to till the earth and
care for it, but because it is the way in which God gives the human being the
capacity to transform himself, creating new things, not only to satisfy his
human needs but also to improve the world.
We could say that man is a worker and a producer, because by working he
obtains what he needs; by means of this work he organizes and transforms the
environment in which he lives. “What is good about work (..) is that one sees
the result and feels ‘divine,’ feels like God, capable of creating. In a certain sense, you feel like a man or a
woman holding the first child in one’s arms.
The ability to create is life-changing” (Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio).
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 2428) teaches
that “in work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed
in his nature, the primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author
and its beneficiary. Work is for man,
not man for work. Everyone should be
able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his
family, and of serving the human community.”
We cannot act without getting better or
worse. Therefore, work helps man to
perfect himself, acquire new habits, strengthen his abilities, gain experience,
broaden his knowledge, make new discoveries and be able to create tools. As
Pope Francis puts it in a homily entitled “Work is Man’s Vocation,” work “has
in itself a goodness and creates the harmony of things--beauty, goodness –and involves
man in everything: in his thought, in
his action, in everything. Man is
involved in work. It is man’s first
vocation: to work. And this gives dignity to man. The dignity that makes him
resemble God, the dignity of work.”
It is common to think of work as a
punishment or as a reality to which there is no other choice. Although we cannot deny that work produces
fatigue or that it is indispensable to sustain oneself, work is much more than
that; it implies a whole personal development that allows man to reach his
fullness.
2.
What does it mean to sanctify work?
Sanctification is, in short, the union
of man with God. This means that when we
work, it is not enough to have the intention of doing it well, seeking personal
development, achieving success or obtaining human rewards; in order to sanctify
our work, it is necessary to encounter Jesus: to carry out our task not only
for Him, but with Him, thus totally changing the meaning of our work. It is not
a matter of saying prayers while performing an activity, but of loving God with
deeds, serving others through that occupation and redeeming the world with
Jesus.
For a Christian, it is a way of
resembling God, of uniting oneself to Him and, above all, of forging habits that
will later help every activity carried out to be elevated towards God. As Pope Francis said in a general audience on
May 1, 2013, work “is a fundamental element for the dignity of a person. Work, to use an image, ‘anoints’ us with
dignity, fills us with dignity; it makes us like God, who worked and still
works, who always acts (cf. Jn 5:17).”
Point 2427 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that “Human work proceeds
directly from the persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the
work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. Hence work is a duty: “If any one will not work, let him not eat.”
Work honors the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union
with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man
collaborates in a certain fashion with the son of God in his redemptive work.
He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in
the work he is called to accomplish.
Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly
realities with the Spirit of Christ.
3.
Three facets of the same reality
St. Josemaria Escriva received a special
call from God to remind all men that work in the midst of the world is a
material for one’s sanctification. Specifically,
he spoke of three dimensions or effects of sanctified work: the work itself, the person who does it, and the
others who benefit from this work. These
are three facets of the same reality. What does each one mean? Sanctifying work
means doing everything we can so that the work is well done. This requires a continuous effort to give the
best of oneself, to look for ways to innovate and improve the quality of one’s
work, etc. “You cannot sanctify work
which humanly speaking is slapdash, for we must not offer God badly-done jobs.”
(Furrow, n. 493). For St. Josemaria, “man ought not to limit
himself to material production. Work is born of love; it is a manifestation of
love and is directed toward love. We see
the hand of God, not only in the wonders of nature, but also in our experience
of work and effort” (Christ Is Passing By,
n. 48).
Sanctifying others through our wok has
to do with the social and apostolic dimension of our work. Work always has an impact on others, since it
implies providing a service to others, and this necessarily has an impact on
the betterment of society. We have all
experienced how the example of a working person is a source of inspiration. Anyone who has been the recipient of an
excellent service knows that the experience can be transformative. Receiving good service, being served with
kindness, makes us feel loved and respected makes us want to do the same for
others. It becomes a virtuous circle
where you want to give back what you have received.
4.
Are all jobs of equal value?
In the world, we tend to categorize jobs
according to the academic preparation they require, their level of difficulty,
the skills required to perform them, their economic remuneration, etc. We
attribute a certain value to the occupation according to these categories. But God’s logic is different. His criterion for defining the value of a job
is the love and uprightness of the heart of the one who performs it.
For God, all jobs, whether they require
more or less technical or intellectual preparation, are of equal value and all
are important for the advancement of society.
He himself gave us an example in Jesus Christ, who lived a life of
intense hidden work as a carpenter.
Although it was a lowly trade in the eyes of many of his contemporaries,
it was the instrument God chose for 30 years of his life on earth to redeem the
world and save us, not only by dying on the Cross, but also through his work.
Wow! That is indeed
enriching, uplifting, edifying. Did you
know about all these? Work can bring out the best in each one of us. Love is the secret. God worked out the
Creation in six days and then looked at the work He has done and found it all
very good. He created the world out of
His great love for you and for me. He
was oozing with love for each one of us.
He wanted to bring Heaven to us on earth. He wanted each one of us to use all the
talents He endowed each one of us to maintain the world, to continue perfecting
it according to His plans and give it back to Him. You and I have to learn to work in God’s
presence and making sure we are trading with all the talents-faith, life, good
habits, abilities, capabilities, attitudes, resources, intelligence, education,
experiences, etc. we received from Him.
Every step of the way we find reasons to be grateful, and to share with
others whatever we have received. We
continue responding to God’s goodness and love. We take care of our
relationship with God as every relationship in life is founded on that
relationship with God.
As always let us talk these things over with God in our
quiet moments of prayer with Him and listen to what He tells each one of
us. He has things to explain further to
you and me. Do as He tells each one of
us to do. Love doing whatever God wants.
See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and
laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us
together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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