When God created the world we can say, in a sense, that he intentionally left it unfinished, and gave man the vocation to complete it. He took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. That is to say, to work in it. God, who had made man in his own image and likeness. wanted him also to share in his creative activity. He wanted him to discover the underlying order in creation, transform matter, discover the treasures within it, and mould beauty into the works of his hands.

Work is not in any way a punishment, but, on the contrary, it is a means by which man shares in the task of creation, and therefore, whatever it may consist of, it is not only something that dignifies man, but is an instrument by which he attains human – earthly – perfection, as well as supernatural perfection. Work is not an obstacle to a full life, but an essential way man develops his capacities and connects with others. Work is a blessing, something good, something that is in keeping with man’s dignity and increases it.

So the divine command to work was already in existence before our first parents sinned. Original sin, however, caused work to become something arduous, hard and tiring. But in itself work continues to be something that ennobles man and gives him still greater dignity, because it is a participation in the creative power and activity of God, even though now it is accompanied by hardship, suffering and weariness.

When Jesus chooses his disciples he finds them among men who are used to hard work. Master, we

toiled all night he is told by those who will be his first disciples. All night, hard at work, since it is their livelihood; they are fishermen. We have the example of Saint Paul himself and of those who accompanied him, working, as they say, with our own hands. And he writes to the first Christians at Thessalonica: We did not eat anyone’s bread without paying, but with toil and labour we worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you.

Saint Paul did not take up work just to keep himself busy or for ‘a change’, for relaxation. He put a lot of effort into it so that he could provide for his own needs and those of others. Here was a man who could command devils, who taught the whole world and had nations and races and whole cities entrusted to his loving care. Yet he worked day and night. We, who have it much easier than St. Paul did, can find no excuses. We must work hard, as perfectly as we can, avoiding poor workmanship.

Our Lord Himself gave us an example of hard work well done and showed that He was familiar with the world of work. In his preaching He frequently used images, parables and comparisons taken from the occupations, trades and professions engaged in and lived by himself and his fellow country men.

The workshop in Nazareth where Jesus worked with Joseph would have been like others to be found in those days in Palestine. Perhaps it would have been the only one in Nazareth. It would have smelt cleanly of sawn and planed wood. They would certainly have charged the usual rates for their work, perhaps making it easier for people who may have had financial worries. The tasks carried out in that little workshop were those proper to that trade. They did a little of everything. Their work might involve constructing a beam, making a simple cupboard, mending a crooked table, planning down a door which would not close. They did not import timber from heaven, but had it supplied from the neighbouring forests.

There is a passage in the Gospels that states that the people following Our Lord cried out, He has done all things well. Since Christ is our Model in ordinary life, Our Lord wants those who follow him in the midst of the world to be people who work well. We can ask ourselves if it can be said of us that we too strive to do all things well, the big things as well as the little things that seem unimportant, because we want to imitate Christ.

Like Christ our Model, we students should be known for the high quality of our work. We should be people who stand out, visibly motivated by noble human objectives, because in our studies we must practice the human as well as the supernatural virtues. We believe by faith that through the homage of work offered to God, man is associated with the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, whose work in Nazareth greatly ennobled the dignity of work. Since we want to follow Christ closely and imitate him, we must add a greater perfection to our study, always keeping in mind the Master who has done everything well.

For a student, daily work means study. So if a student wants to be a good Christian, he has to be a good student who studies hard and well. We need to attend classes and to concentrate on what the professor is saying. If attending lectures isn’t the best use of our time (for example because of the poor teaching quality, or because of our previous familiarity with the material) we could find alternative resources in order to master the course. We must keep up with our assignments, keep our notes in order and learn to allocate our time to our various subjects. We has to learn to focus on the job at hand, sitting for hours of serious and intense study at our desk without giving in to distractions. When we have set time to study – we will study with extreme focus. We will make a schedule of study and stick to it, starting on time (not 10 minutes late) and putting it down on time as well. And we will follow this schedule, putting in all the hours foreseen, even though there may be no assignment due or exam to study for in the short term.

Studying with intensity also means not allowing ourselves to be distracted by what is going on around us. For example, it means not looking up each time someone enters or leaves the library or study room. While studying we will not be listening to music from our iPod nor interrupting our concentration to check our email, nor chatting on line with friends, looking at Facebook, sending text messages, nor eating or drinking. This serious approach to study doesn’t rule out breaks, but a break is a brief interruption in order to return with renewed intensity. We can work harder, sharpen our punctuality, sustain the effort and finish off well those assignments we begin with such enthusiasm; no doubt we can be more orderly, take better care of the instruments and equipment that we use. Let us examine the quality of our study, and together with Our Lord see where it can be improved

For far too long the idea of being a good Christian has been limited to the performance of pious practices cut off from the world of work, because of a supposed incompatibility between secular work and the interior life. Even many good Christians mistakenly assert that it is basically impossible to be a devout Christian while living and working in the heart of society. Nevertheless, it is there in the midst of daily study and work and by means of it, not in spite of it, that God wants to call most Christians to lives of holiness. We are to seek to sanctify the world and seek personal holiness ourselves with a life of prayer that gives divine meaning to earthly tasks.

We must find God in our studies, transforming them into the hinge on which our calling to holiness rests and turns.. We can offer up our studies, no matter how trivial or how important they may appear to human eyes, and be God’s partner, no less, in his Creation. We should see our desk as an altar on which we offer up our studies to God, doing them as well as we can, remembering that we cannot offer up something poorly done to God. How important a role does the Lord play in my studies?

We must have our eyes set on Heaven, our ultimate and permanent homeland. At the same time, we need to have our feet firmly planted on the earth. We should study with intensity to give glory to God, and to prepare ourselves properly to be serve society in our future profession or trade. If we are not taking our studies seriously how are we to seek holiness in them? How well, then, am I doing my studies?

The great enemy of study is laziness, which has many manifestations. The lazy person is not only the one who wastes time by doing nothing, but also the person who starts many things but fails to finish them. He works on things according to the whim of the moment, puts little effort into them, and abandons them at the slightest difficulty. The lazy student is a friend of ‘beginning’, but he is put off by the sacrifice that constancy and perseverance in his studies demand of him, and this prevents him from completing what he has started.

Study is a means to grow in holiness for the Christian. It is also a source of grace for the whole Church, since you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. When one believer is struggling to improve, then all the others move forward on their way to God. Study done to perfection is, of course, also of great benefit to mankind. Sweat and toil, which study necessarily involves in the present condition of the human race, present the Christian and everyone who is called to follow Christ with the possibility of sharing lovingly in the work that Christ came to do (cf John 17:4). This work of salvation came about through suffering and death on a Cross. By enduring the toil of study in union with Christ crucified for us, man in a way collaborates with the Son of God for the redemption of humanity. He shows himself a true disciple of Christ by carrying the cross in his turn every day (cf Luke 9:23) in the studies that he is called upon to do.

Study brings about a certain tiredness and stress that we can offer to God in expiation for our sins and for the sins of others. The humble acceptance of that exertion, which cannot be completely eliminated however well organized our study may be, means that we can play our part in the purification of our intellect, of our will and of our senses. We should examine whether we often complain about our studies. We should consider in God’s presence whether we offer, for ends that are nobly ambitious, the tiredness brought about by our study. We should check whether we persevere in those subjects that we find less appealing, offering up this effort for others.

A lack of interest in what one is doing, incompetence, skipping classes or failing to do assignments for no reason, allowing voluntary distractions in study are incompatible with sanctifying our studies. If we are negligent we offend first of all against our own dignity, and then against those who have made sacrifices to enable us to study, often our parents and the taxpayers of our country. We offend against the society in which we live, because in some way all the evil and all the good done by individuals have repercussions on human society. Failure to take our studies seriously is not only a fault and perhaps even a sin against the virtue of justice, but also against charity, because of the bad example it gives and because of its consequences.

Let us try to identify points in our way of studying that require a change of emphasis or rhythm. Do I live the virtue of order, so that I tackle jobs according to their relative importance and not according to my own whims or preferences? Am I unnecessarily slow in finishing off my work because of lack of interest or punctuality? Do I break off my study on any excuse, perhaps causing others to be held up?

It is also important not to fall into the trap of seeking academic success at any price and of becoming attached to our studies. For example, we need to know how to leave our studies and worries to one side when the time comes to stop in order to pray or to look after our family or friends.

Study should not take up so much of our day that it occupies the time that should be dedicated to God, to the family, to our friends. If this should happen it would be a clear sign that we are not seeking holiness through our studies, but rather that we are simply seeking self-satisfaction in them. It would be another form of corruption of that divine gift. This deformation is perhaps more dangerous in our day because of the false reasons for which many people study. We, ordinary simple Christian students in the middle of the world, should never forget that we must find Christ each day in and through our studies.

There is a story of a clown in a circus who, after finishing his performance, retired to the performers’ area of the tent. Upon doing so he saw that the tent had caught fire and the performers were desperately trying to put it out. He rushed back out in front of the audience to warn them of the fire and to tell them to leave the tent. However, the audience thought this was only part of his act and began laughing instead of heeding his warning. This would be our situation if we were to try to do apostolate with our classmates, urging them to seek holiness in their studies, while lacking the credibility that comes from being a top student. They would consider us as a clown and not take us seriously.

Prestige is earned, day after day, by silent study, done well and conscientiously in God’s presence without too much concern about whether people notice it or not. This prestige in our studies has immediate repercussions on our classmates and friends: our words with which we try to lead them to God will carry a proportionate weight and authority. The example we give of serious study will help them to improve in their own studies. Our studies will become a pedestal for Christ, so that he can be seen, even by those who are far away.

To finish off what we do often means taking care of minor details, of the little things. This demands effort and sacrifice, and when we offer it up it is pleasing to God. Taking care of the details for love of God does not diminish the soul. It ennobles it, because it perfects the study we are doing, and when we offer it up for specific intentions we share in the needs of the whole Church. In this way our job takes on a supernatural dimension it previously lacked. In our study, as in other aspects of ordinary life such as in family and social relations, in periods of rest and leisure, we always have this choice – carelessness and shoddiness which impoverish the soul, or the little work of art offered up to God as the expression of a soul with interior life.

Let’s tell Our Lord that we want to carry out our studies in an exemplary way because we truly want them to be a daily offering to him, and because we are determined to imitate him in the years of his hidden life at Nazareth. Through those silent years of hard work, the Lord teaches us the transcendent value of our daily toil. He proves that unity of life is possible. For it was in his workshop that the world’s Redemption was taking place. If a student lacks a serious commitment to his studies, it will be very difficult, perhaps impossible, for him to have a deep interior life and do apostolate.

Through Baptism, we are called to be another Christ. We are called to turn our studies into a work of co-redemption. Even though in men’s estimation our studies may seem unimportant, if they are united to Christ they acquire a value beyond compare. Indeed, work, any honest work done conscientiously makes us co-redeemers with Christ. This truth, Pope John Paul II taught, by which man through work participates in the work of God himself, his Creator, has been particularly brought to the fore by Jesus Christ, by that very Jesus before whom many of his first hearers in Nazareth were astonished and said: Where did this man get all this? How did He come by such wisdom? Is not this the carpenter? (Mark 6:2-5)

Union with God, which we seek in our studies, will strengthen our resolution to do them only for the glory of God and the good of souls. The prestige which we acquire by being good students will attract other good students to our side and we will have abundant help from Heaven to start many of our classmates along the way of an intense Christian life. If we act in this way, the sanctification of our studies and our endeavour to do apostolate throughout the day will run parallel in our lives. This will be a clear indication that we are really studying with an upright intention.

As Christians we discover new treasures in our studies because all the pathways of the earth can be an occasion for meeting Christ as St. Josemaria would say in so many different ways. He spent his life preaching that holiness is not reserved for the privileged few. He recalled an experience which he used in order to teach those who came to his apostolate what work done in the presence of God should be like. I also remember my stay in Burgos around that time. Our walks would sometimes take us as far as the monastery of Las Huelgas. On other occasions we would find our way to the Cathedral.

I used to enjoy climbing up the cathedral towers to get a close view of the ornamentation at the top, a veritable lacework of stone that must have been the result of very patient and laborious craftsmanship. As I chatted with the young men who accompanied me I used to point out that none of the beauty of this work could be seen from below. To give them a material lesson in what I had been previously explaining to them, I would say: ‘This is God’s work, this is working for God! – to finish your personal work perfectly, with all the beauty and exquisite refinement of this tracery stonework.’ Seeing it, my companions would understand that all the work we had seen was part of a prayer, a loving dialogue with God. The men who spent their energies up there were quite aware that no one at street level could appreciate their efforts. Their work was for God alone. Now do you see how our work can bring us close to Our Lord? Do your job as those medieval stonemasons did theirs, and your work too will be ‘operatio Dei’, a human work with a divine substance and finish, even though not a single person sees it, or nobody appreciates it. God sees it and values it. That is enough to encourage us to put an effort into finishing off our assignments perfectly, lovingly.

Our studies can and should be the means of bringing many people to know Christ. The person without faith will always have an incomplete view of the world, while the Christian’s way of behaving will sometimes clash with the current fashion, or will not be in accord with the accepted practices of his classmates. These circumstances are particularly favourable for making Christ known, if we give a natural and firm example of Christian living. The more the world declares that it has no need of God, the more desperately it needs him. If, as Christians, we struggle to follow Christ seriously, we will make him known.

Through our studies we will find many opportunities to spread Christ’s saving message: in a friendly conversation, in our reaction to setbacks, in our willingness to hear people out. Our Guardian Angel will help us to say the right word at the right time. Let us examine ourselves to see whether we are able to carry out an effective apostolate through our own study milieu.

A collection of readings from Francisco Fernández, In Conversation with God (Scepter, 1992)]
Photo by Dan Dimmock on Unsplash