Reflections for the Working Soul: Serving God alone

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Serving God alone

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+ RWS 534 February 17, 2013

1^st Sunday of Lent

Gospel: Luke 4:1-13

8 Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: 'You shall worship the Lord,

your God, and him alone shall you serve.’”

Serve God alone

By Bishop Precioso D. Cantillas, SDB, DD

Serve God alone? This is simply not acceptable to anyone who wants to do what he wants in his life. Yet, Jesus categorically declares that this must be so. The reality is that God is Lord, and we human beings are creatures of God together with all of His creations. The norm therefore is to serve God alone, with all our heart, mind and soul, and in every moment of our existence here on earth and in life-after. Thus, we should consider how every act we do, including your daily works, can be our act of service to God and for God alone.

Doing one’s work could very well be a way of serving God, as the only Master worthy to be served. The worker should do his job not just in order to please his employer or his boss, but to please God above all and to render Him due worship. The worker’s acceptance of the Lordship of God in all of his being will make him give all the best he can to do his work, thus, making him an excellent worker in all standards of work performance. While a worker who is unmindful of the reality of God’s kingship in his being, could do his job as much as he thinks and feels commensurate with how much he is given for his work. If he sees that he is paid highly, he could give the corresponding effort and energy to his job. He could also endeavor to work harder and better if he wants a higher salary and greater work benefits. But the worker who totally adheres to God will work with his entire mind, his heart and his being for the love of his Master. Working totally for God can happen to one who loves God with all his being.

Serve God alone? Why not, after all, He alone can compensate us with our work with every satisfaction which our being truly needs. We need only to believe and trust in Him. Then, it would be easier to love Him with all our work.

A holy burnout

By Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS

For the first time after 718 years, another pope resigns. If it’s any consolation to us ordinary laborers, we see that even His Holiness can experience workplace burnout. If someone so chosen and blessed can get weary from doing his work, so can we who primarily take on jobs to sustain our families. Now Pope Benedict XVI becomes the second pope of the Catholic Church to resign, the first being St. Celestine V who was elected pope at age 79 in July 1294 and who resigned after five months.

We learn that Benedict XVI had in 2009 and 2010 visited the St. Celestine’s earthquake stricken hometown of Sulmona, Italy, and laid his stole over the relic of St. Celestine. In retrospect we surmise that as early as then, Pope Benedict XVI may have been drawing strength from the example of the saint he has so admired. Benedict, like Celestine, voluntarily resigned due to old age, but people endlessly speculate on the “real reasons” behind his earthshaking resignation: Hampered by health issues? Weakened by clergy-related scandals? Shamed by his butler’s betrayal in leaking Vatican documents to media? Did he give up because he was fed up with Church politics?

That’s just it—he “gave up” because he was “fed up”—that’s how a world which knows of no other reality than itself will see a man’s abdication of the papal throne. Mass and social media are abuzz with speculation, many of them judging the pope’s “quitting” as an indication of failure. On the contrary, I believe his resignation has been the most luminous move of Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy, for now he is radically leading the people to what alone matters. Renouncing the power of his position, he will go on serving the Church through a life of prayer. Surrendering your all to the Divine and dying to yourself—isn’t this what the gospel asks of all Christians? In resigning, the pope is practising what he preaches, serving God alone, imprinting the love of God in the conscience of Church leaders. Thus begins a new spring for God’s people.

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What they say about 'Reflections for the Working Soul', the book

Day in and out, the Inquirer brims with news. That's the Inquirer's strength: A frenzy of in-your-face news daily. Almost always the bad news. Then Reflections for the Working Soul happened every Sunday. Suddenly, we had (and have) an oasis of Good News. For reflection. For serenity. Not up there in the clouds. But right here in the dailiness of living and working with real people some of whom can really get on one’s nerves.

Thanks to Bishop Precioso D. Cantillas and Teresa R. Tunay. In three paragraphs or less, they offer a way and an attitude in the workplace not just for Sundays but for my day-to-day lifestyle to keep in touch with what works in relationships, including people one can barely stand working with. They sort out for me what’s important and really counts in life and living in the workplace as a microcosm of the real world.

So, I look forward eagerly to reading the Good News bylined by the bishop and Tunay. Because they speak to me personally about how to be most effective and productive at work while at the same time staying connected to the Good News, and thus staying in a state of serenity and grace. Providentially, their names—Precioso and Tunay (precious and true)—sum up their contributions to the development of the Inquirer as an instrument and institution of the Good News of the Lord.

—Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc
Editor-in-Chief, Philippine Daily Inquirer

From Bishop Rolly Tria Tirona:

Giving flesh and bones to our Christian faith has always been the challenge for every Christian. Translating belief in Christ into Christ-like action is extremely demanded in market and work places. Christian work ethics is the fruit of inspiration and not of pure legislation.

Reflections for the Working Soul, a weekly column of Ms Teresa Tunay and Bishop Precioso Cantillas in a newspaper section catering primarily to people at work, provides that inspiration for the many working people desirous to integrate their belief with their work.

These joint reflections make the Gospel teachings so reachable to busy people. Their insights help working people understand that they do matter in the transformation of our society and of our country. In their reflections, they show that work can lead to contemplation, while contemplation sanctifies and elevates their work to the heart of God.

I salute and congratulate Ms. Teresa Tunay and Bishop Precioso Cantillas for being the instruments of the Holy Spirit to warm and lift up the spirit of our working people.

Most Rev. Rolando J. Tria Tirona, OCD
Bishop Prelate of Infanta
15 April 2007, Divine Mercy Sunday

Carmelite priest Junjun Agruda says:

In the mountains, geologists and miners use the elegant term "angle of repose" to describe the precise angle at which a boulder will rest on the side of a hill, rather than tumble downward. I think of that image as the point at which prayer and action meet. Every so often one of those boulders breaks loose, releasing potential energy in a crashing rockslide that permanently alters the landscape.

The creative ways in which Prayer and earthiness are wedded in these Relfections for the Working Soul forge a spirituality that makes room for piety as well as for activism. Bishop Precioso Cantillas and Ms. Teresa Tunay have grasped the nature of Prayer as partnership with God’s activity on earth. These reflections bring us to that "angle of repose", the place where contemplation and prayerful action meet. Thus in the process, the act of Prayer emboldens us to join the work of transforming the world into a place where the Father’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

—Fr. Mariano Agruda III, OCD
Provincial Superior,
Order of Discalced Carmelites, Philippines

Bishop Stude comments:

Two beautiful minds, talented persons very much respected, committed and sefless in their respective works, have gifted us with an inspiring and interesting book, Reflections for the Working Soul. The skillful authors—Bishop Precioso Cantillas and Ms. Teresa Tunay—make the Sunday Gospels more applicable, much alive in the work world. The inspiring book enhances spirituality in the workplace and imparts refreshing reflections which encourage and challenge one to make the workplace a ‘good soil’ (Mark 4,8) and to ‘bear fruit: some thirty, some sixty,and some one hundred’ (Mark 4,20).

Reading Reflections for the Working Soul is to know that the words of its gifted authors are their works, and their works are their witnessing for Jesus and His Gospels. With our works and in our places, Bishop Precioso Cantillas and Ms. Teresa Tunay take and turn us to ‘see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5,16).

—Monsignor Ruperto Cruz Santos
Bishop of Balanga

From Monsignor Hernando Coronel:

The teamwork between Bishop Cantillas and Teresa Tunay is the application of the Second Vatican Council teaching regarding the transformation of society. A cleric and a layperson combined their personal insights to give light on the values needed in the workplace. Indeed, they have witnessed against a rat race world, a dog-eat-dog milieau, a corporate atmosphere of power and control. Their spirituality of the workplace heralds the values of the Gospel in the business setting, that it is important to pray before deciding, to seek God’s will before acting in the commercial sphere. Theirs is an advocating of building a faith community in the workplace where Christian principles reign and are lived out.

—Monsignor Hernando Coronel
Archdiocese of Manila

Fr. Mario Baclig, SDB, says:

If once we had worker-priests, now we have a genuine worker-bishop. And this book is proof of this. Bishop Cantillas is himself a worker; he grew up in Don Bosco Cebu getting his hands soiled and greasy in the machine shop. When he was nominated bishop, he had all set and ready a pastor’s staff that he had been fabricating for someone else. And now, a published compilation of his thoughts for workers. This is a precious gift for today’s workers, from a worker-bishop!

Teresa Tunay is his partner in this endeavor. She comes with her unique journalistic talent and creativity. But more than that, she brings in a rare sensitivity to the simple and often unnoticed lives of ordinary workers. Her love and concern for young workers has kept the Blue Collar magazine going despite all odds. I cannot wait to get hold of this book. How I wish that workers worldwide would have a similar privilege!

—Fr. Mario Baclig, SDB
Salesiana Publishers

From the late Fr. James Reuter, SJ:

The secret of doing anything well is to love what you are doing —to enjoy your job. If, when you wake each morning, you are eager to meet the challenge of this day; if your mind is filled with it, joyfully, when you are brushing your teeth, when you are in the shower, when you are drinking your coffee. . . . . .your work will be a smash! What these 'Reflections' do is to remind you that your work is an apostolate. . . you are serving the children of God. You might not have silver and gold, but what you have you give—yourself! And that is the most beautiful gift of all. This little book makes you realize that you are serving God. . . every day, every hour, every moment. . . . in the market place. It is worth reading—one set of reflections every day. It will fill your life with love. You will go to work smiling.

—Fr. James Reuter, SJ
Director, National Office on Mass Media for the Catholic Church in the Philippines