Should You Be Like a Child at Work? - 2

We must be like little children. Our Lord tells us this, as we saw last time.

We Catholic men at work ought to understand and accept this teaching as it applies to our spiritual life.. (It is, after all, Our Lord Who teaches us!) But last time we suggested that we reject the insanity of relying solely on ourselves, certainly in our spiritual lives, but also in our work life - just as a little child does relies on his mother and/or father, rather than him or herself.

Is this really practically doable? Let's see if we can find some answers from Father Edward Leen:

“We all fail by being too ‘grownup’ with God. We act as adults in our dealings with God and perhaps God acts with us accordingly. If we are too preoccupied about doing things for God, God may let us go on and do them. It is not merely a question of doing things for God. A child does not really do things for its parents; rather they do things for it. As long as we are on this earth we are children. Children have to be looked after by their parents."

Okay, I get the part about children and their reliance on their parents. But what about us adults, especially us men at work?

"We are always in need of being looked after in this life. We attain adult age only when we enter into Eternity; then we reach, each one in his measure, the full stature of Jesus Christ. We must say again, then, that it is not so much a question of doing things for God, but of being dependent on God, or of doing all that we do in dependence on Him."

Being dependent on God, or doing all that we do in dependence on Him provides some insight into how being like a child, relying on God rather than ourselves might apply not only in our spiritual life, but also in our daily labors. Let's see if Father's further thoughts might help us to grasp this both in theory and practice.

“We know how a loving child takes keen delight in thinking it is doing something for its father or mother; the child is pleased and the parents are pleased. The child wants to write; the father takes the little fingers in his and guides their every movement. The child is quite as happy as if he were writing all by itself. The father is happy, too. The act is perfect when done by the child and the parent. It is the same in the supernatural life."

Yes, yes, we get the point about the spiritual life. But how do we apply this to our work? Ah, it's coming... 

"To do things fully for God is to do things with God; God helping us in each activity, helping us to teach, to sweep, to cook, and guiding our activity in the thousand-and-one details which fill the framework of His Will for us. The moment we stand apart from God, the moment we are pleased to exercise our own powers, the result is disaster as far as spiritual values are concerned. To human senses and reason the result may look fair enough, but supernaturally it is a hideous smudge, or a hopeless scrawl…”

So there it is: "God helping us in each activity, helping us to teach, to sweep, to cook, and guiding our activity in the thousand-and-one details which fill the framework of His Will for us."

And if somehow we dismiss this advice and continue relying on ourselves, heed this warning: "the moment we are pleased to exercise our own powers, the result is disaster as far as spiritual values are concerned. To human senses and reason the result may look fair enough, but supernaturally it is a hideous smudge, or a hopeless scrawl..."

Let that sink in - a hideous smudge, a hopeless scrawl. No matter how "successful" we may be in our chosen occupation, now matter how well compensated, no matter how satisfying we find our work, without God it's nothing more than a hideous smudge, a hopeless scrawl. 

With that, Father Leen takes us back to Our Lord, and ends his lesson with a reference to Our Lord's Nativity, when He Himself became a child for us. Can we not become a child for Him? 

”Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” This is the lesson of the Spiritual Childhood we find so hard to learn. It is the grace of Christmastide. God became a Child to teach us that we must be towards Him as little children..."

And lest we find ourselves awkward in our attempts at become that little child, we are reminded finally,

"God has given us His own Mother to teach and help us to be converted and become as little children.”

Men, we can go to Our Lady and beg for her assistance. Dear Mother, help us to to become little children for Jesus, as He became a little child for us.