When we meditate on the life of Jesus, we realise that the greater part of his existence was spent in the obscurity of a village which was hardly known even in his own country. We understand how some of the neighbours said: Go to Judaea, so that thy disciples also may see thy doings. Nobody is content to act in secret, if he wishes to make himself known at large (John 7:3-4). The value of Our Lord’s actions was always infinite and he gave the same glory to his Father when he was sawing wood as when he was raising a dead man, and when the crowds were following him, praising God.
Many events had taken place in the world during those thirty years which Jesus spent in Nazareth. The peace of Augustus had come to an end and the Roman legions were preparing to resist the onslaught of the barbarians. In Judaea, Archelaus had been sent into exile for his innumerable crimes. In Rome, the Senate had declared Octavian Augustus to be a god … but the Son of God was then actually in a little village, some ninety miles from Jerusalem. He lived in an ordinary house, probably made of sun-dried bricks like the rest, with his Mother, Mary, because St Joseph must have died by this time. What did God made Man do in that place? He worked, like all the other men in the village. He was no different from them in anything striking, because he was also one of them. He was Perfect God and Perfect Man. We cannot forget that the temporal existence of the Son of God consisted of his hidden life as well as his apostolic life.
When Jesus returns later to Nazareth, his fellow countrymen are amazed at his wisdom and the wonders reported of him. They know him because of his job, and because he is the son of Mary. What is the meaning of this wisdom that has been given him …? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary … ?(cf Mark 6:2-3).St Matthew tells us elsewhere what they thought of Christ in his village: is not this the carpenter’s son, whose mother is called Mary …? (Matt 13:55). They have seen him work every day, for many years. That is why they emphasise his job.
We also see from Our Lord’s preaching that he knows the world of work very well. He knows it as someone who has experienced it at first-hand, and so he uses many examples of people working.
In those years of his hidden life at Nazareth Jesus is teaching us the value of ordinary life as a means of holiness. The ordinary life of a man among his fellows is not something dull and uninteresting. It is there that the Lord wants the vast majority of his children to achieve sanctity (J. Escrivá, Christ is passing by, 110).
Our days can be sanctified if they are like those of Jesus in those years of his hidden, simple life in Nazareth: if we work conscientiously, and remain in God’s presence while working; if we live charity with those around us; if we accept contradictions without complaining; if our professional and social relations are a way of helping others and bringing them close to God.
If we contemplate the life of Jesus during these years without any external brilliance we will see him working well, with nothing done badly, filling the hours with intense work. We can imagine Our Lord gathering up his tools, leaving everything tidy, with a pleasant greeting for the neighbour who comes in to order something. He will have the same greeting for those who are not very friendly, or whose conversation is not very agreeable. Jesus would be known for doing things in this way because He has done well in all his doings, including material things.
All who came near him would feel moved to be better and would receive the help of Christ’s silent prayer.
Our Lord’s job was not outstanding; it was not light or easy, nor was there in it a great future from a human point of view. But Jesus loved his daily work and taught us to love ours, for, if we do not, it is impossible to sanctify it. For when one does not love work, it is not possible to find any other kind of satisfaction in it, no matter how one tries to turn to something else (F. Suarez, Joseph of Nazareth).
Our Lord also felt the weariness and fatigue of daily work, and experienced the monotony of days which were always the same, with nothing of special interest. This consideration is also a great help to us, because the sweat and toil which work 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. This work of salvation has been accomplished through suffering and death on a Cross. By enduring the toil of work 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 in the activity that he is called to perform (John Paul II, Encyclical, Laborem exercens, 27).
Jesus, during those thirty years of hidden life, is the model we should imitate in our life as ordinary people who work every day. When we contemplate Our Lord we have a deeper understanding of the obligation that is ours to work well. We cannot pretend to sanctify badly done work. We have to learn to find God in our human occupations, to help our fellow citizens, and to contribute towards raising the standards of the whole of society and of creation (cf Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, 41). Someone who is bad at his job – a student who doesn’t study, a shoe-maker whose work is slipshod … if they don’t change and improve, they cannot attain sanctity in the middle of the world.
We have to win Heaven with our ordinary work. We need, then, to try to imitate Jesus whose labour with his hands greatly ennobled the dignity of work (ibid, Gaudium et spes, 67).
To sanctify our tasks we have to bear in mind that a Christian should do all honest human work, be it intellectual or manual, with the greatest perfection possible; with human perfection (professional competence) and with Christian perfection (for love of God’s will and as a service to mankind). Human work done in this manner, no matter how humble or insignificant it may seem, helps to shape the world in a Christian way. The world’s divine dimension is made more visible, and our human labour is thus incorporated into the marvellous work of Creation and Redemption. It is raised to the order of grace. It is sanctified and becomes God’s work (Conversations with Monsignor Escrivá, 10).
In sanctified work, like that of Jesus, we will find scope for small mortifications which can be made specific by paying attention to what we are doing, in the care and order with which we look after the instruments we use, in being punctual, in the way we treat other people, in offering up our tiredness, in trying to bear contradictions as well as possible, without useless complaints.
In our professional duties we will come across many opportunities for rectifying our intention, so that what we do is really a task offered to God, and not another occasion of self-seeking. By doing this we won’t become pessimistic because of our failures, or be separated from God by our successes. This upright intention – working face to face with God – will give us the stability of soul of ones who are continually close to Our Lord.
Today we can ask ourselves in our personal prayer whether we try in our work to imitate the years of Jesus’ hidden life. Have I prestige in my profession and am I competent among those I work with? Do I practice the human and supernatural virtues in my daily work? Is my work a way of bringing my friends and colleagues closer to God? Do I speak to them about the doctrine of the Church concerning those truths where there is more ignorance or confusion at the moment? Do I fulfil my professional duties faithfully?
We look at Our Lord’s work at the same time as we examine our own. And we ask him, Lord, give us your grace. Open the door to the workshop at Nazareth so that we may learn to contemplate you, together with your holy Mother Mary, and the holy Patriarch St Joseph …, the three of you dedicated to a life of work made holy. Then, Lord, our poor hearts will be enkindled, we shall seek you and find you in our daily work, which you want us to convert into a work of God, a labour of love (J. Escrivá, Friends of God, 72).
By Francisco Fernandez, In Conversation with God, New York, Scepter, 1990, Volume 1, pp. 341-346
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