Some Special Intentions at Work During this First Week of Passiontide
Let's see if we can find some special intentions to bring to work with us during this first week of Passiontide - the name traditionally given to the last two weeks before Easter.
We're called to a progressively steady recollection of the Passion and Death of Our Lord. Good Friday is less than two weeks away.
In the traditional liturgy of our Holy Church, there's a further stripping away or emptying, that takes place. This begins with Lent. You no longer see flowers on the altar. "Allelulia" retires until Easter. Now the statues are covered with (usually) purple cloth. Occasionally you might see this covering in churches that celebrate the Novus Ordo Mass, but it's rare.
On a personal level, we're called to a progressively steady recollection of the Passion and Death of Our Lord. Good Friday is less than two weeks away. In the spirit of Passiontide, can we perform some sort of stripping away or emptying ourselves, in tandem with the Church's Liturgy? Specifically, can we do this at work? Let's see.
First, if we've kept some sort of Lenten discipline during our work days, we likely have already begun the process stripping away or emptying. For example, if we've tried to impose some form of fasting, we're emptying - by not filling - our bellies as we typically do at lunch. Or if we've committed to increasing the virtue of humility, we may have stripped away some speech or behavior that in the past built us up in the eyes of others.
In the case of humbling ourselves, perhaps we've reduced our tendency to show off how smart or competent we are. Not that we allow our work to suffer. But the overt displays of our "genius" have been somehow muted. We accept other people's views without offering what we consider a better or smarter alternative. Again, we don't do this to the detriment of our work. After all, our co-workers' approach may be just as effective as our own, even more so, in which case they get all the credit in the eyes of others, rather than ourselves.
And seriously, we can manage to present ourselves humbly but perform as competent effective workers, right? Indeed, with humility, we can strip away all the superficial behaviors that serve strictly to bolster our standing in the eyes of others.
If you've ever encountered this sort of posturing in the workplace, you're familiar with our reference here. Isn't it - to put it mildly - unappealing?
Perhaps we have been guilty of this. It's understandable if we're concerned to prove our worth. Misguided for sure, but understandable. But make no mistake, such posturing likely contains grains - or even chunks - of pride. At the very least, these behaviors can feed pride, the natural tendency towards which we, with our fallen human nature, must struggle against every day. Now's our chance to right this. Such behavior simply isn't necessary. We can establish our worth without this.
Such thoughts may reveal our first special intentions during this first week of Passiontide. With prayer and sincere intentions, we seek to strip away these outward manifestations - especially the outright prideful posturing.
Such an intention will not be beyond any of us. But it's not an easy go. Kind of perfect for Passiontide, don't you think? We focused on this particular intention because it seemed to be appropriate for most if not all of us. From here we can examine our individual conscience for other sins and faults that might infect our thoughts, words, and behavior at work.
We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee
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