The Call to Work and Service

"Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me".
- Matthew 25:40

"Souls who spread the honor of My mercy I shield through their entire lives as a tender mother her infant ... Happy is the soul that during its lifetime immersed itself in the Fountain of Mercy, because justice will have no hold on it." - Jesus to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1075

The following is the fourth of a four-part series.

Read part one.
Read part two
Read part three
.

The call to work and service includes not only your job or profession, but also your ministry and service to others. The Church is apostolic after all. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

[W]ork is a duty ... Work honors the Creator's gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.

In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. the primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work (2427-2428).

Therefore, by fulfilling your call to work and service, you are, in part, fulfilling your potential, part of the mission for which God has created you. Above all, the Catechism adds, is the need to instill charity (love) in your work, "drawn from the Eucharist above all" (864). Truly, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" (13:3). Therefore, consider these following questions and points to examine how well you are living your call to work and service in love:

Is your work ethical and carried out in an ethical manner, respecting all life and being a good steward of God's creation?

Do you value yourself based on how much you can produce, or by the love with which you do your work?

Do you foster a sense of communion and mercy with others you work with or serve?

In Christ we have a duty and obligation to help the poor. Do you participate in corporal and spiritual works of mercy?

Do you allow yourself time of rest and leisure to give thanks to God for the good He has given you and to promote a culture of life, communion, contemplation, and worship of God?

At the end of time, Jesus says He will separate those who served Him in others and those who didn't (see Mt 25), those who lived the Beatitudes and those who didn't. So, desire to serve others and live the Beatitudes, not just out of obligation, but out of love for Christ and others. Truly, when you allow yourself to be transformed by love in every part of your life and vocation, you will be more like Christ, more blessed, and find true fulfillment and happiness in this life, and more importantly, for all eternity.

DDBURG

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