Nov 3 Fri
God in our daily work.
God looks after us all day long, hour by hour, helping us grow in holiness. He is always there, as a loving Father, ready to comfort and support us. Every day we have to renew our desire for holiness. Our Mass and our prayer should merge with our work and our daily duties; united to God in all of them, we become saints. We should always be ready to live our life as God wants, so that we lovingly raise the ordinary small events of the day onto a supernatural level and make them apostolically fruitful.
That way, each day is different. Every new day has its own flavor, its own sense of anticipation. Saint Josemaría writes: “We are children in God's eyes, and if we learn to see our daily life like that, even though in one sense it may seem quite unchanging, then every hour becomes quite unique and takes on new meaning, filled with wonder and beauty. All we have to do is open our eyes to God's light, because he speaks to us through all the little events of the day.”
We know that in our journey through life we are going to meet Christ's Cross, because by embracing the Cross, we become like him. Our Lord awaits us in our ordinary daily activity; there it is where we can help him carry the Cross. Today's trouble is enough for today, he tells us; so, let us try to be faithful, and undertake our little battles in a sporting spirit, “without remembering ‘yesterday,’ which has already passed, or worrying about ‘tomorrow,’ which for all you know may never come for you.”
In our apostolate we are bound to encounter opposition. Usually, they are nothing more than little setbacks which make life inconvenient: our plans are upset, perhaps, and we may get annoyed, impatient or discouraged. Then we should heed that recommendation of St James: “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces patience. And let patience have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
For a son or daughter of God who sees things from a supernatural viewpoint, the ordinary setbacks of the day are an opportunity for drawing closer to God, for increasing the spirit of sacrifice, and improving in some specific aspect of his life.
That is how we show that our self-surrender is genuine, based on love. “How many, who would let themselves be nailed to a cross before the astonished gaze of thousands of spectators, cannot bear with a Christian spirit the pinpricks of each day! -Think, then, which is the more heroic.”
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