Wilfrid Stinissen (1927–2013)
It is impossible to live in the present moment without focus and attention. It is about walking this earth with vigilance. We should fully engage in what we want to do and not allow our energies to be wasted. To be completely available to God like Mary: “I am the handmaid of the Lord.”
God is now giving us a task to accomplish, and we should do it as well as we can. Whatever work we do is a sacred activity, and we should carry it out diligently and with respect. It is the holy liturgy that we ourselves embody.
Could we imagine that Jesus carried out his carpentry work carelessly? Or that his work was marked by nervousness and haste? Or that he might read the Bible while planing boards and be so absorbed in prayer that he did the work poorly, requiring Saint Joseph to fix it? We can believe that Jesus worked in the workshop with full dedication. It was not just an activity to fill his time or simply waiting for his preaching mission. He took the work of his hands as seriously as he later healed the sick. He knew that his Father works and that he must work with him—not to interfere in the creative work, but to surrender to the Father as a suitable instrument: “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). And with what love did Mary prepare food for Jesus and Joseph!
There exists a false spirituality—which relates to each of us to some extent—that divides life into the sacred and the profane: prayer or going to Mass is something sacred, but cooking dinner, cleaning, or taking care of personal hygiene is necessarily secular... No, in reality, everything is sacrum. Everything is incorporated into the sacred liturgy that we perform from morning to night and from evening to morning. Yes, even sleep is a sacred activity, and that is why it is included in prayer: “I lie down and sleep in peace” (Psalm 4:9).
But aren’t there also many activities that do not require our attention and that we do automatically? We eat, we wash, we walk...? Is it not better to forget that we are doing them and instead think about God? This, of course, is possible and much more useful than wandering off with our imagination while working and allowing our thoughts to run aimlessly in all directions. However, there is another option, which, in a longer-term perspective, leads to greater depth, as it does not carry the risk of creating a chasm between work and prayer. It rests, among other things, on the principle of “do what you are doing,” but en profondeur (in depth).
In what we do, we therefore seek deeper dimensions. After all, everything is a sacrament and a symbol. The Gospels show us how Jesus, in his interaction with things and events, viewed everything in a broader context. Just as he himself is the sacrament of the Father and reveals Him, so physical things are the sacrament of Jesus: they make visible his life and love. When his gaze rests on a bird that gathers its chicks under its wings, he recognizes his love in that and reminds himself that he came to gather into one what was scattered (cf. Matthew 23:37). When he saw a ripening wheat field while traveling through Galilee, he did not have to look away to think of God. After all, the grain itself reveals God's love, which he came to proclaim and show: unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit (cf. John 12:24). It is not just a matter of metaphors typical of poets and dreamers. Jesus aims at the very essence of reality.
If we also live this way, there are no contradictions between work and thoughts of God. We reach the depths of the meaning of work and are in God.
Taken from the book: Christian Deep Meditation
Author: Wilfrid Stinissen OCD
Published by: KNA
