Unimportant
There are in fact no unimportant jobs at all…
When I was a little girl, my mother would tell me that she would be proud of me even if I grew up to become a street sweeper so long as I always tried my best.
I remember thinking at the time that I would probably enjoy the list of a street sweeper. It seemed that I would get to spend a lot of my life outdoors, and I would see lots of new places. Of course, I would also have to deal with the rubbish, but I always sort of assumed that such a part of that job would be very manageable indeed. The part of the job that I did not consider very closely – because I lived a very sheltered life – was the money. I really did not have any understanding that one job might pay more than another or that there might.
Needless to say, I never became a street sweeper – though that work is decent work and nothing to be worried about.
But as I was reflecting on the course of my work, I found myself contemplating the work of Christ, which was humble work. Christ – like His foster father – was a craftsman. He worked in the heat of the day and the cold of the morning. He contended with difficult customers and exchanged money in transactions. He bought supplies and materials and built things. Did people refuse to pay for His work? Did they complain about the time it took Him to build the items? Were they rude and angry when they interacted with Him?
How did He handle this work? He did not worry about worldly goods. We know this because He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and took no part in the offering of being king of this world.
And it occurs to me that the single most important Person in this world, is a Man who was born twenty centuries ago and who worked in a very unimportant job.
“As far as God is concerned — and in the last analysis that is the only thing that matters — victory only comes to those who strive to behave as genuine Christians. There is no middle way. That is why you find so many people who from a human point of view ought to be ever so happy, yet they go about uneasy and embittered. They appear to be overflowing with happiness, but just scratch beneath the surface of their souls and you will discover a bitterness more bitter than gall. This will not happen to us, provided we really try, day in day out, to do God’s will, to give him glory, and praise him and spread his kingdom to all mankind.” (Saint Josemaria, “Friends of God”, at page 10-12).
And I have been thinking about this today as I have been thinking about unimportant jobs. For it seems that there are in fact no unimportant jobs at all…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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