These two ought to be together. At the moment, of course, we are far way off the ideal. Work and prayer are supposed to be together, because our life, though with many parts, aspects, levels, is only one and that life is a life with God, our Creator and Father.
Everything in it is supposed to be done or to take place with God. In spiritual parlance, this doctrine is called the “unity of life.†We need to be more keenly aware of this doctrine and to start to translate it into practice.
The objective reality of our life should be reflected as perfectly as possible in our subjective understanding of our life. That is when we would be living in the truth, precisely because truth is when our subjective grasp of things agrees with the objective reality.
Since our life is a life with God, then we can also say that our life is a life of prayer. That is the broadest definition of prayer. Prayer is when we are with God subjectively, when we correspond to the objective reality of our being with God. This can be done intentionally, mentally, orally, etc.
But prayer can and should be done also through our work, our study, our rest, and in fact through all the phases, aspects and activities of our life. Thus, St. Paul says: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.†(1 Cor 10,31)
We should not consider this Pauline indication as an exaggeration, or a purely religious dictum that we are free to accept or not. Of course, we are free to refuse it, but that would be akin to the freedom of harming oneself.
We need to adapt our thinking and our culture and civilization in general to this truth that comes to us more through our faith than through our own estimation of things. Reality in its ultimate dimensions is given to us by faith more than by our reason and senses alone.
That we have to do everything for God and with God can be derived also from the words of Christ who, when asked what the greatest commandment was, said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and thy whole mind.†(Mt 22,36) Sorry, but I don’t see how else those words could be understood.
With respect to our work which we have to learn to convert into prayer, we can say that the basis for this is that we have been created by God to work. We have been made to work just as the birds are made to fly. Work is not meant to be a curse or punishment to us. In fact, it plays a prominent role in our nature and life.
Work is part of what makes us “the image and likeness of God.†It is what integrates all our human faculties and turns our potencies into actualities. It offers us the means of livelihood and the tool for development and progress, both personal and social, local and global.
More, our work is always a work of God also. It is not just our work. It is part of divine providence, that abiding governance of God over all his creation.
It is important that we be aware of these truths so that we avoid distorting it, or reducing or impoverishing it of its objective role in our life, or worse, of making it work against us and God.
Unfortunately, we are seeing many disturbing phenomena related to work. If there are many people who have unhealthy attitudes toward work so that they as much as possible would refrain from work, there are also those who work hard but with evil motives and improper purposes.
It is now a big challenge for us to recover the true nature, character and role of work in our life. The recovery has to start with the individual persons, then the family, the schools, before the true face of work can be seen in our government offices, private businesses and industries, sports and recreation, politics, culture, etc.
One indispensable thing that we should do or realize is that our work is actually a personal encounter with God, and because of that, it is also a personal encounter with everybody else.
Work, just like our life in general, is relational. That is how work could be done properly. That is how work could become prayer and also love and service for others. Let’s put work and prayer together!
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Email: roycimagala@gmail.com