Hi!
It’s May! Labor Day, a.k.a. Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, gave us a chance to reflect on work and what it means to us. Many of us see work as a necessary evil, something that has to be endured because it allows us to pay our bills and enjoy life. Here in BeyondKilig, though, we like looking at work through the lens of Theology of the Body, as a means for us to express our love and to become closer to being who we were made to be.
Loving through work
What, we can express our love through our work? Yes! Think of the manliligaws in the olden times. To be able to show the lady and her family the sincerity of their intentions, they would willingly subject themselves to work and servitude. Random chores like chopping wood or fetching water from the well became so much more meaningful because of the love and willingness they poured into it. From being mere chores, the work that they did became a measure of their love. Just like them, we can say “I love you” with our bodies too, if we approach our work with a spirit of service and infuse selfless love into our daily tasks.
Putting Love into our work
When we approach work, it helps to keep in mind what our intentions are or who we are doing it for. As the tagline of a coffee advertisement goes, “Para kanino ka bumabangon?” Is it for our family? For our colleagues? Or for God’s greater glory? Keeping our intentions in mind makes it easier for us to embrace our work willingly. We end up doing work not just because we have to, but because we want to. [freely] Offering it up to an intention also makes it easier for us to do our work well, to give it our all [total], and to plow through despite difficulties and challenges [faithful], as work now becomes a visible representation of how much love we have for the ones we are offering it to.
The best thing about heeding the call to be a gift to others and taking part in God’s self-giving is that it doesn’t stop with us. When the people around us witness our sincere gift of self, we end up inspiring them to do the same [fruitful]. In doing so, we are able to bring meaning not just to our own lives but to the lives of those around us as well.
In his apostolic letter Patris Corde, Pope Francis said that “work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion.” The pope highlights that we are all, through work, called to participate in God’s work. When we are able to go beyond ourselves, to give more - of our time, effort, and love - into our work, the seemingly mundane tasks get elevated. We get to slowly fulfill our vocation as co-creators when we start seeking to not just better ourselves but also uplift the lives of our brethren. Our life's goal then is to be able to look at ourselves not just as capable of doing good work but also as capable of helping shape a world where each and every person is doing well and where there is no room for injustice and suffering.
So whether we are doctors, who - despite knowing the risks - still continue to show up to work every day to heal the sick; or farmers, who toil under the hot sun to provide food not just for our own tables but for other households as well; or teachers, who regardless of pay, treat each of our students as our own and do our best to help enlighten and direct their minds towards the truth; or even moms, who stay in the background, running households and rearing children without even seeking for validation or fame, we are all called to make a difference.
We can make a difference. We should start making a difference.
So let’s start working like a manliligaw, pouring our hearts and souls into our tasks and letting our work be a measure of our love.
As always, we hope that as you go on your journey, you continue to love, beyond kilig.
Warm regards,
Carla
Beyond Kilig Team
“The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible, the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the invisible mystery hidden in God from time immemorial, and thus to be a sign of it.” St. John Paul II, General Audience 20 February 1980
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