Baxter has a sense when things are not right. The other day I was lying on the couch not feeling well. He would usually jump up on my belly and fall asleep for a while until he decided that sleeping on the floor next to me was better. However, this time he just touched his paw to my side and went under the coffee table to rest while I slept on the couch. He seemed to know that I was under the weather, and he respected my need for some space and undisturbed quiet. Baxter stood by wondering what was wrong withthe usual picture without adding to its disquiet.
Do we have a sense of each other in our day to day dealings? Often, we go about our usual business without noticing the people who are involved. We have a job to do and we do it. We are concerned about the results, and we want to get things accomplished. In the wake of all this concentrated effort at producing a product, we can forget why we are doing the job and who’s to benefit. We work for people. Whether we are constructing a building, cooking a meal, caring for the sick, keeping financial accounts, fixing a car, calling a parish bingo or engaging any of a thousand other jobs done today, people are meant to benefit from our work, and the product of our effort should somehow make other’s lives better. As Christian believers, we don’t work just for a pay check. Of course, we need a livelihood, but our jobs involve more. We are helping to build the Kingdom of God in our world.
Work brings people together both with co-workers and clients. It provides us with common goals that are meant to unite us around a common task. It calls for more than individual achievements, though these are often necessary. It calls for a shared effort that uses the talents of everyone involved to do something that benefits others. Our work is meant to carry on God’s work in the world. God’s job is to call us to Himself by linking us to each other. When we connect together in some effort, we gain a sense that something bigger and better than ourselves is at work here. This is a hint of the holy among us. God works between us, among us, and through us as we share a common task to extend the goodness of creation. When we work this way, it helps to avoid the drudgery, the ongoing conflicts, the back-biting and extreme complaining that can poison a workplace. We are in this together—God, me, us—for others’ good. There is no better formula for meaningful work that enhances our lives through its service.
Baxter’s job is to be a cat. He does it well because he has a sense of the other person in his cat world and respects him. We work best when we respect and welcome those we work with and those we work for, because God is at work with all of us.
-Monsignor Statnick
