Meditation 53
LIFE AT NAZARETH
Life of Work.
Since the Holy Family was poor, their life had to be a life of work. They had no capital to live on; they had to live by the labor of their hands. Joseph had his job; Mary Her domestic tasks; the Child helping both: all were working. Let us meditate on what They wish by this work to teach us.
1. In Creation Work is a necessity.
It is something inherent in human nature. Laziness, inactivity is completely against reason. Man is born for work as the bird is born to fly, says Job in the Holy Scripture. Even in Paradise God wanted that man should work. God put man into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.
After the fall work is also a punishment and thus it keeps its punitive character and causes fatigue. But properly speaking it is the fatigue that is a punishment of sin, not the work itself. As all of us have sinned no one is exempt from this sanction. Physical and moral labor entails fatigue in the body and in the soul. We must always work to earn food, to preserve our life, even for recreation. Be then persuaded that labor is a duty and cannot be waived! Since God is activity by essence, the more your work, the more rational will you be, the more similar to God. God is pure act, as the philosophers say, namely the greatest and the most productive activity.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
LIFE AT NAZARETH
Life of Work.
Since the Holy Family was poor, their life had to be a life of work. They had no capital to live on; they had to live by the labor of their hands. Joseph had his job; Mary Her domestic tasks; the Child helping both: all were working. Let us meditate on what They wish by this work to teach us.
1. In Creation Work is a necessity.
It is something inherent in human nature. Laziness, inactivity is completely against reason. Man is born for work as the bird is born to fly, says Job in the Holy Scripture. Even in Paradise God wanted that man should work. God put man into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.
After the fall work is also a punishment and thus it keeps its punitive character and causes fatigue. But properly speaking it is the fatigue that is a punishment of sin, not the work itself. As all of us have sinned no one is exempt from this sanction. Physical and moral labor entails fatigue in the body and in the soul. We must always work to earn food, to preserve our life, even for recreation. Be then persuaded that labor is a duty and cannot be waived! Since God is activity by essence, the more your work, the more rational will you be, the more similar to God. God is pure act, as the philosophers say, namely the greatest and the most productive activity.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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