Continuing to Take Easter to Work This Week
We continue taking Easter to work this week. We remind ourselves of the unique status of this entire week, when Holy Mother Church celebrates each day in the same solemn fashion she did on Easter Sunday. You'll hear the most "Alleluia's" of any time during the liturgical year if you're able to attend Holy Mass during the week. As we suggested last time:
A group of us were helping one of our sons move that day. Holy Saturday was the only time we could gather the necessary brawn to help him. Two of us were athletes (not me!), who, along with the rest of us put their hearts and sturdy muscles into helping him who was their brother or their friend. Given the fact that the apartment my son was moving from was on the top floor of a five-story "walk up" building (i.e., no elevator), the presence of two athletes was most helpful. (I had the enviable duty of staying with the double--parked rented truck to avoid getting a double-parking summons, or to move the truck if someone needed to move one of the cars we were blocking.)
I bring up the athletic duo because, having watched my son (one of the athletes) over time, I noted that he tends to go through special training programs where he's trying to build up some specific physical capabilities. These are interspersed with intervals, routines to maintain, or, even better, build on any progress made. If the training was particularly difficult, a good athlete might "reward" themselves with a short period of some time off training, perhaps an indulgence of some food or drink usually avoided or minimized during special training. But any athlete worth their salt limits such periods. And, of course, any indulgences allowed would not include anything that might actively harm the physical capabilities they worked so hard to improve.
The comparison with recent Lenten spiritual discipline (which included certain fasting practices) jumped out at me. With Lent ending, I thought of the resumption of "normal" spiritual activity that would begin the next day, Easter Sunday, in this light. Lent becomes a kind of "special training program" to build up specific spiritual "capabilities." What might these be? They're likely different for each of us. On a practical level in the work place, they might include: avoiding gossip; getting to work on time every day; producing our best efforts; applying the utmost integrity to all our thoughts, words, and actions; thinking, speaking and behaving charitably towards our colleagues, even those who somehow get under our skin by their (to us) annoying behaviors, most especially towards those who may not especially like us, nor we them. All of these - and more - help us to sanctify our work, as we strive to do our best for the greater glory of God.
Now, as we "exit" Lent, just as an athlete maintains the progress he or she has made in their special training, so too we want to maintain any progress we've made. So we continue to do or not do x, y, and z in the work place. In this way we build, or at the very least maintain, any progress we've made. Also, as good spiritual athletes, we do so not to pat ourselves on the back to build up our egos. We avoid the danger of feeding our pride by reminding ourselves that we work for the greater glory of God, not our own glory.
Summing up, we bring the special graces of this Easter week with us to work first by recognizing them and cooperating with them, especially in our determination to continue the progress we made during Lent. We understand that the greater glory of God is best served and seen in the excellence of our work, along with keeping our spiritual discipline throughout the work day. With the end of our special Lenten discipline, we now maintain and build on any progress we made during Lent by continuing to perform those acts of prayer and sacrifice individually appropriate to each of us.
Recognize the graces that flow from these special days and ask Our Risen Lord to grant us the help, the strength we need to continue to sanctify our work and grow ever closer to Him. Just because you are surrounded by the secular and material concerns that fill the work place (for most of us), that doesn't mean you can't incorporate your spiritual life into every thought, word, and deed throughout your busy day.Today, we take a look at how sustaining our prayer life, making small sacrifices during the day by, for example, denying ourselves small pleasures through our mortifications or going out of our way to be charitable towards others, keep us firmly on track to making continued progress in doing God's will every moment of the day. By way of example, we consider an event that took place on Holy Saturday.
A group of us were helping one of our sons move that day. Holy Saturday was the only time we could gather the necessary brawn to help him. Two of us were athletes (not me!), who, along with the rest of us put their hearts and sturdy muscles into helping him who was their brother or their friend. Given the fact that the apartment my son was moving from was on the top floor of a five-story "walk up" building (i.e., no elevator), the presence of two athletes was most helpful. (I had the enviable duty of staying with the double--parked rented truck to avoid getting a double-parking summons, or to move the truck if someone needed to move one of the cars we were blocking.)
I bring up the athletic duo because, having watched my son (one of the athletes) over time, I noted that he tends to go through special training programs where he's trying to build up some specific physical capabilities. These are interspersed with intervals, routines to maintain, or, even better, build on any progress made. If the training was particularly difficult, a good athlete might "reward" themselves with a short period of some time off training, perhaps an indulgence of some food or drink usually avoided or minimized during special training. But any athlete worth their salt limits such periods. And, of course, any indulgences allowed would not include anything that might actively harm the physical capabilities they worked so hard to improve.
The comparison with recent Lenten spiritual discipline (which included certain fasting practices) jumped out at me. With Lent ending, I thought of the resumption of "normal" spiritual activity that would begin the next day, Easter Sunday, in this light. Lent becomes a kind of "special training program" to build up specific spiritual "capabilities." What might these be? They're likely different for each of us. On a practical level in the work place, they might include: avoiding gossip; getting to work on time every day; producing our best efforts; applying the utmost integrity to all our thoughts, words, and actions; thinking, speaking and behaving charitably towards our colleagues, even those who somehow get under our skin by their (to us) annoying behaviors, most especially towards those who may not especially like us, nor we them. All of these - and more - help us to sanctify our work, as we strive to do our best for the greater glory of God.
Now, as we "exit" Lent, just as an athlete maintains the progress he or she has made in their special training, so too we want to maintain any progress we've made. So we continue to do or not do x, y, and z in the work place. In this way we build, or at the very least maintain, any progress we've made. Also, as good spiritual athletes, we do so not to pat ourselves on the back to build up our egos. We avoid the danger of feeding our pride by reminding ourselves that we work for the greater glory of God, not our own glory.
Summing up, we bring the special graces of this Easter week with us to work first by recognizing them and cooperating with them, especially in our determination to continue the progress we made during Lent. We understand that the greater glory of God is best served and seen in the excellence of our work, along with keeping our spiritual discipline throughout the work day. With the end of our special Lenten discipline, we now maintain and build on any progress we made during Lent by continuing to perform those acts of prayer and sacrifice individually appropriate to each of us.
Happy Easter!
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