Fulton Sheen on Work - 4

Continuing with our series on Fulton Sheen's views about work, we look at the two aspects of every task. 

If we are properly organized in our work, we have some sort of "list" of tasks that need addressing each day. That list may be one given us by our managers or supervisors; or it may be one we create for ourselves to guide us each day; or perhaps a combination of both.

Having served both as employee and business owner, I've worked with all of the above. Now, in my small business, I begin each week with a written list of tasks to address throughout that particular week. I cross off those tasks completed, circle those begun that need more attention. It's a simple system, written out, that suits me. As you likely know, there are all sorts of programs or apps out there you can utilize for this purpose, typically labelled some sort of "To Do" list. 

Here we're focusing on work tasks only.

Let's let Bishop Sheen take us through the "two aspects" of every task we perform today at work (emphasis added). We'll repeat some of Bishop Sheen's remarks discussed in our two previous posts.

"Every task we undertake has two aspects - our purpose, which makes us think it worth doing, and the work itself, regarded apart from its end-purpose. We play tennis to get exercise, but we play the game as well as possible, just for the joy of doing the thing well. The man who argued that he could get as much exercise by sloppy technique on the courts wold have missed an understanding of the second aspect of all activity: the accomplishment of the task in accordance with its own standards of excellence. In the same way, a man working in an automobile factory may have, as his primary purpose, the earning of wages; but the purpose of the work itself is the excellent completion of the task. A workman should be aware of the second purpose at all times - as the artist is aware of the aim of beauty in his painting, and the housewife is aware of the need for neatness when she dusts.

"Today the first aspect of working has become paramount, and we tend to ignore the second...so that many workmen lead half-lives in their laboring hours. They are like gardeners, ordered to grow cabbage to give them sauerdraut juice, but indifferent as to whether their plots are weeded properly or their cabbages are healthy vegetables. This is a mistaken attitude: God himself worked when He made the world and then, viewing it, He called it 'good.'

"The legitimate pride in doing work well relieves it of much of its drudgery. Some people, who have held to this craftsman's standard get a thrill from any job they do. They know the satisfaction of " a job well done" whether they are engaged in caning a chair or cleaning a horse's stall or carving a statue for a Cathedral. Their honor and their self-respect are heightened by the discipline of careful work. They have retained the old attitude of the middle ages, when work was a sacred event, a ceremony, a source of spiritual merit. Labor was not then undertaken merely for the sake of economic gain, but was chosen through an inner compulsion, through a desire to project the creative power of God through our own human effort."

We repeat these words because of the stark contrast with today's world. We're living and working in a thoroughly secularized society. So our efforts to "spiritualize" our work must doubled and tripled, and we pretty much must do that on our own. Contrast this with an age where God and His Holy Church permeated every aspect of life.

Of course, individuals still had to fire up their spiritual engines in order to benefit. Simply waking up in the Middle Ages did not guarantee a trip to Heaven. You still had to work at it. But your work had a supportive public part that reinforced, even energized the private effort.

That's not the case today. We must fire up our spiritual engines more or less on our own. And while we can do our best to keep serious Catholics and serious liturgy close, how realistic is that for most of us? How many many serious and faithful Catholics who put their all into raising their children with a solid knowledge and understanding of their Catholic Religion have watched as those children drifted away from the Faith, some even aggressively rejecting it. The influence of the secular society simply overwhelms them. Not that we dismiss or excuse the personal choices they ultimately make. But, simply existing in this secular society can be akin to keeping company with bad companions.

Getting back to our work, that's why it's so important that we develop and strengthen a daily discipline that incorporates our Faith with our work. If we don't consciously offer up all our efforts for God's greater glory; if we don't try to at least occasionally recollect ourselves in God's Presence during our busy days; if we don't perform acts of mortification from time to time, what chance to we stand to connect our work and our spiritual life?

Combine these conclusions with our last remarks on the importance of doing all with exactness and fervor - in the spirit of a craftsman - and our work today will indeed strengthen our spiritual life.