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Column Building the kingdom in daily work
By GREGORY PIERCE
The e-mail discussion group on faith
and work that I maintain -- 800 strong and growing and you are welcome to join
-- has been discussing how the practice of the spirituality of work might be a
response to terrorism.
Bob Raccuglia, an association executive in Chicago, writes:
It is clear that good, even heroic work does not require that we be
perfect. For example, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is a flawed character who makes
plenty of mistakes performing his job. Yet the way he has exercised leadership
during the past weeks is an inspiring example of what we would hope for from a
public official in such a crisis. He has acted with compassion, resolve and
courage. Likewise, I imagine that the firefighters and police officers who have
shown such heroism did not all have unblemished records. But they rose to the
occasion in the moment of need.
What they seem to have had in common was an underlying
spirit of service. Mayor Giuliani clearly loves New York and the people of New
York. The firefighters and police knew they were there to save lives. They
acted accordingly. To paraphrase the Bible: Doing your job when it counts
covers a multitude of imperfections. In the course of doing ones job,
challenges arise. It doesnt take a perfect boss or a perfect worker to
meet them. To gain competence, to cultivate an attitude of service and
responsibility, to be willing to lay ones self on the line -- these are
the characteristics that seem to make the difference. They are
enough.
And engineer Mark Dudziak, from Atteleboro, Mass., comments:
Many of us spend up to half of our waking life in the workplace, and it
is here that we have most of our outside human contacts. If we assume that
within our own circle of family and friends -- where we spend most of the rest
of our time -- spiritual priorities are shared by all (a big assumption, I
know), then the place where we can really change the world is at work, where
there exists a continuum of spirituality levels. Short of dropping our lives
and going off as a missionary, this is where we have the best opportunity to
share Gods presence in us with others. Im not talking about
in-your-face evangelization, but attitude and lifestyle.
In situations like the current crisis, this can take the
form of sharing our hope and focusing on the remarkable good which has
resulted, i.e., the heroic efforts of people to give of themselves to help
those in need, our new realization of and sharing in the sufferings of those
throughout the world who live with our current fears every day of their lives,
the new togetherness we now share that is breaking down walls of hatred and
mistrust that could not have been penetrated any other way. When we hear talk
in the workplace from some people of revenge or mistrust of people of certain
ethnic or religious backgrounds, we have the opportunity to share our own views
and potentially reach far beyond our own circle to impact the greater community
at large. Clearly, we will not be able to reach every person every time, but if
our example at work builds for us a reputation of trust and integrity, our
words and deeds will at least be heard by those around us and create the small
sparks that may one day grow into greater flames of faith.
Even in everyday situations, our genuine spirituality can be
shared in dozens of ways each week. When a co-worker is being put down by
others, we can speak a word in their defense. When a potentially dishonest path
is being pursued with customers, suppliers. etc., we can voice our concerns and
the possible fallout that can result. When the stress of crises on the job is
bringing someone down, we can offer words of perspective and lend a hand to
help them over the hump, even if it means allowing some of our less critical
tasks to slide. We can drop our competitive nature and need to rise above
others and simply do our best work, giving public praise to others when they do
a job well and sharing in their joy when they are rewarded.
Dudziak ends with a confession each of us needs to make as we try
to live a spirituality of work: I wish I could say that I live this way
each day, but sadly I fall far short of the vision. But God is still at work
within me and each of us, so the short-term goal is just to keep moving forward
toward that long-range goal.
That long-range goal, it seems to me, is what we Christians call
the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven -- a world much more
like the way God would have things, a world in which no one would feel the need
or have the ability to fly a plane into a building or mail a virus to anyone.
The primary way most of us help build that kingdom is through our daily work.
Wed best get busy doing it in the most spiritual way we can.
Gregory F. Pierce is the co-publisher of ACTA Publications and
the author of spirituality@work: 10 ways to balance your life
on-the-job. To join his e-mail discussion group, send a message to
SpirtualityWork@aol.com
National Catholic Reporter, November 9,
2001
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