Work is My Gift to You
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January 5, 2020“Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” (Mt 2:11)
It has become a custom that on this Epiphany day, as we prepare to return to our ordinary work schedule after Christmastide, we receive our work assignments anew, brought like the Magi’s gifts to be placed before the newborn Christ. As I reflect on work as a gift, I realize that if I were to choose a job or career for myself, I would be identifying my own gift, deliberately cultivating it and making it available to others. This is a beautiful thing, like giving a gift openly, for all to see, with no wrapping paper. On the other hand, if I choose to give my life to God through monastic profession of obedience, I am opening myself up to receive my work from the hands of another, without choosing or knowing in advance what it will be. This is like giving a gift all wrapped up in paper and tied with a bow. No one knows what’s in there. Even I don’t know what’s in there!
That’s the amazing thing about the life we’re leading. We’ve given our life, whole and entire to God, and to this community by our profession. We came to the monastery wanting to give ourselves; this was a burning desire in our hearts which could be satisfied by nothing short of totality. Of course, we had no idea what that would mean when we stepped across the threshold. Perhaps we imagined the consecrated life, a life of prayer and work, community and solitude, would be beautiful and satisfying in every way, something we would step into like a set of clothes and simply inhabit for the rest of our life. Pretty soon, we begin to realize that this gift of ourselves costs something (imagine that!), it goes against the grain, it tests us, and what’s more, it isn’t done once and for all but has to be re-done, re-given many times, every day, many times a day, and more deeply over the years. Did I know what it is I was giving when I gave myself to the monastic life? Do I even now know all that’s inside the wrapping paper? Perhaps I thought I knew myself, but then, as the gift is opened day by day, the paper torn off gradually – but not always gently – something comes into view that I couldn’t have imagined. Yes, this gift is a mystery – a mystery prize.
Did you ever see a game show on TV where they showed the contestants all the prizes they could win if they solved this puzzle or completed that task? There would be a carousel showing all the prizes, such as a set of golf clubs (oooh!) or a kitchen makeover (aaah!), or even a cruise to the Bahamas (wooow!). But then there would be a box with question marks all over it: a mystery prize. Now, I don’t know about you, but the mystery prize would always get me. No matter how attractive the other prizes were, I would feel drawn to this mystery prize, thinking to myself: this has to be something amazing, magnificent, fantastic, better than anything I could choose for myself. Perhaps it’s for the same reason I am attracted to the monastic life, this radical living of the gospel with total trust in the Father’s providence, total dedication to the following of Christ for the sake of “what eye has not seen, nor ear heard.” For we ourselves are a mystery prize, offered in a box covered with question marks. Its contents are revealed only in the giving, day by day. Our life, consecrated to God, is also his gift to us.
At Terce on Mondays in Ordinary Time, we say to God: “Work is your gift to us, a chance to reach new heights by using our talents for the good of all.” A perfect pick-me-up for Monday mornings. Or Tuesday mornings. Or Wednesday… The work assignment we receive and carry out daily is one of the more obvious expressions of obedience in our life, and this makes it a privileged place to encounter Christ. Our Constitutions tell us that each of us has the right and duty to play our part in the work of the community. This speaks to me of mutual gift-giving. My work is my gift to God and to the community; it is also God’s gift to me and the community’s gift to me. Our work gives a practical structure and purpose to our daily life in a way that nothing else can. Without it we would lose our balance, our footing, our orientation and sense of meaning. “Idleness is the enemy of the soul,” and so our work is a saving gift. It was one of God’s first gifts to Adam and Eve: to till and keep the garden in which they were placed.
All work is a gift because all work is formative. Whether I rake, sweep, scrub, polish, chop, fry, bake, lift, pump, stir, type, alphabetize, stitch, patch, iron, bandage, soothe, listen or advise, something in the world is changed and something in me is changed. In whatever way I have been asked to, I tend to the world, people and things, I till and keep them, and at the same time I am tended to as well, I am tilled and kept, cultivated and brought to harvest. And everything that is involved in this arduous process – the struggles and personality clashes, the problems and mistakes, even the boredom – this is all part of the unwrapping of the gift. Christ’s hands tear off the paper, bit by bit, to reveal the mystery prize beyond our imagining.
So, when I receive the wrapped gift of a new or different work assignment, it is well worth thinking of it as a mystery prize, an opportunity to tend and be tended to, to bring to fruition and to be brought to fruition in some new way yet to be revealed.
Image: https://www.greeknewsonline.com/gold-frankincense-and-myrrh-the-gifts-of-magi-to-christ/
