A Final Shaking Up of Our Work Day: Imitating Christ at Work
Today we give our work day one good final shaking up, continuing our discussion of the importance of imitating Christ in our lives.
As we noted last time, because each of us is a unique individual with a unique and special relationship to Jesus Christ, it's important that each of us, in our own way, look at Our Lord's life and spend the time we need to apply His example in ways that will make the most sense to us in our own circumstances. But even as we can't come up with a generic "punch list" that tells us how to follow Christ's example each day in all our thoughts, word, and actions - especially when we're at work - we can nevertheless benefit from these additional thoughts from Reverend George Zimpfer:
“Familiarity, then, with the events of our Savior’s life is of immense value to anyone who desires spirituality. But a mere knowledge of the events alone would be sterile. Just as history is the study of motives rather than of movements, so knowledge of the Gospel events must always be less important than a true knowledge of the spirit back of the events. To be more specific, we must strive to live and fight for truth as Jesus lived and fought for it; we must attack ignorance and sham as he attacked it, with no complacence in our own superiority, clearly seeing the difference between the sinner and the sin. We must develop courage and fearlessness in facing the harshness of men and their deep selfishness, preferring to see them as ignorant rather than as malicious. We must seek to acquire some of our Lord’s patience and kindness, His charity and tolerance, His understanding and gentleness. These qualities and many others are what we mean by the ‘spirit’ of Jesus. They do not come to us magically by conformity to some religious Rule or by set forms of prayer and practices, however good these may be in themselves. The spirit of Jesus comes only as our own personality merges, as it were, with that of Jesus, as we reflect in our daily conduct His ideal of living. When this desire to mold our exterior and interior living on the example of Jesus colors our day’s activities, we call the result virtue – or spirituality.” (Rev. George Zimpfer)
So many times we've emphasized the importance so studying Scripture. But as Father points out, mere knowledge isn't enough. We can know each of the Gospels by heart, and still not penetrate the mystery of the Sacred Heart. We must strive to know the spirit behind the events portrayed in the Gospels. Father suggests that by focusing on how Jesus lived and fought for truth we can begin to learn how we must imitate Him, each in our own way, in our own circumstances. (Perhaps we might recall His words, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," to better appreciate the importance of fighting for the truth.) Specifically, we must:
I frequently encounter ignorance and sham in a fair percentage of my research and in the professional literature that crosses my desk as a result of my need and desire to stay informed and improve my own knowledge and skills. For years, this led to a sense of superiority. Eventually I got over that. I'm guessing the graces that flowed from continually, diligently read Scripture and good spiritual writings as well as studying the doctrines of our holy religion were the cause of my getting over my sense of superiority.
While I'm blessed in my current occupation not to have to face much harshness and selfishness in my daily work, I have faced this - sometimes in spades - in the past. Did I always consider the ignorance rather than the malicious behind such behavior? Frankly, no. If that's true for you, join me in praying for the grace to assume ignorance rather than maliciousness. We might even remember Our Lord's haunting words spoken from His Cross: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
As for patience, kindness, charity, and tolerance, well, I do hope your efforts to develop these virtues have been more successful than my own. All I can say is I keep trying, and perhaps by the grace of God, these will come more naturally to me than they do now.
As Father points out, in the end, we can acquire such qualities only when "we reflect in our daily conduct His ideal of living." Our very personality will eventually change. To paraphrase St. Paul, our "old man" must become a "new man." And that "comes only as our own personality merges, as it were, with that of Jesus."
Here we find the essence of our spiritual life. As for our work lives, we not only carry this spiritual life with us to our jobs, but we can, really we must, live it throughout our work day. Despite any initial misgivings we may have about our chances of success here, the only thing we need to do is to desire it. God's grace will do the rest. As Father puts it:
"When this desire to mold our exterior and interior living on the example of Jesus colors our day’s activities, we call the result virtue – or spirituality."
And whether your parish celebrates the glorious feast of the Ascension today, or this Sunday here are best wishes for a
As we noted last time, because each of us is a unique individual with a unique and special relationship to Jesus Christ, it's important that each of us, in our own way, look at Our Lord's life and spend the time we need to apply His example in ways that will make the most sense to us in our own circumstances. But even as we can't come up with a generic "punch list" that tells us how to follow Christ's example each day in all our thoughts, word, and actions - especially when we're at work - we can nevertheless benefit from these additional thoughts from Reverend George Zimpfer:
“Familiarity, then, with the events of our Savior’s life is of immense value to anyone who desires spirituality. But a mere knowledge of the events alone would be sterile. Just as history is the study of motives rather than of movements, so knowledge of the Gospel events must always be less important than a true knowledge of the spirit back of the events. To be more specific, we must strive to live and fight for truth as Jesus lived and fought for it; we must attack ignorance and sham as he attacked it, with no complacence in our own superiority, clearly seeing the difference between the sinner and the sin. We must develop courage and fearlessness in facing the harshness of men and their deep selfishness, preferring to see them as ignorant rather than as malicious. We must seek to acquire some of our Lord’s patience and kindness, His charity and tolerance, His understanding and gentleness. These qualities and many others are what we mean by the ‘spirit’ of Jesus. They do not come to us magically by conformity to some religious Rule or by set forms of prayer and practices, however good these may be in themselves. The spirit of Jesus comes only as our own personality merges, as it were, with that of Jesus, as we reflect in our daily conduct His ideal of living. When this desire to mold our exterior and interior living on the example of Jesus colors our day’s activities, we call the result virtue – or spirituality.” (Rev. George Zimpfer)
So many times we've emphasized the importance so studying Scripture. But as Father points out, mere knowledge isn't enough. We can know each of the Gospels by heart, and still not penetrate the mystery of the Sacred Heart. We must strive to know the spirit behind the events portrayed in the Gospels. Father suggests that by focusing on how Jesus lived and fought for truth we can begin to learn how we must imitate Him, each in our own way, in our own circumstances. (Perhaps we might recall His words, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," to better appreciate the importance of fighting for the truth.) Specifically, we must:
- Attack ignorance and sham - but with no sense of our own superiority.
- Develop courage and fearlessness in facing harshness and selfishness in other, while seeing them as ignorant rather than malicious.
- We can do this as we acquire Our Lord's patience and kindness, His charity and tolerance.
I frequently encounter ignorance and sham in a fair percentage of my research and in the professional literature that crosses my desk as a result of my need and desire to stay informed and improve my own knowledge and skills. For years, this led to a sense of superiority. Eventually I got over that. I'm guessing the graces that flowed from continually, diligently read Scripture and good spiritual writings as well as studying the doctrines of our holy religion were the cause of my getting over my sense of superiority.
While I'm blessed in my current occupation not to have to face much harshness and selfishness in my daily work, I have faced this - sometimes in spades - in the past. Did I always consider the ignorance rather than the malicious behind such behavior? Frankly, no. If that's true for you, join me in praying for the grace to assume ignorance rather than maliciousness. We might even remember Our Lord's haunting words spoken from His Cross: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
As for patience, kindness, charity, and tolerance, well, I do hope your efforts to develop these virtues have been more successful than my own. All I can say is I keep trying, and perhaps by the grace of God, these will come more naturally to me than they do now.
As Father points out, in the end, we can acquire such qualities only when "we reflect in our daily conduct His ideal of living." Our very personality will eventually change. To paraphrase St. Paul, our "old man" must become a "new man." And that "comes only as our own personality merges, as it were, with that of Jesus."
Here we find the essence of our spiritual life. As for our work lives, we not only carry this spiritual life with us to our jobs, but we can, really we must, live it throughout our work day. Despite any initial misgivings we may have about our chances of success here, the only thing we need to do is to desire it. God's grace will do the rest. As Father puts it:
"When this desire to mold our exterior and interior living on the example of Jesus colors our day’s activities, we call the result virtue – or spirituality."
And whether your parish celebrates the glorious feast of the Ascension today, or this Sunday here are best wishes for a
Happy Ascension Thursday!
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