Working in Love: Fight Against Idleness!

"Either we learn to find our Lord in everyday life, or else we shall never find Him." - St. Josemaria Escriva


St. Joseph, the foster father of our Lord Jesus, was a carpenter. A man of a simple lifestyle, even for that time period, one who lived by his work as a craftsman and builder. He never says anything in all of Scripture, and perhaps it's because of his simple lifestyle as a carpenter that this is the case. Obviously, some of the Apostles and early Saints came from simple lifestyles, and one can say that they still did even after the followed Christ, going from place to place in plain clothing, not taking very much with them usually. However, St. Joseph wasn't called to be an apostle, a prophet, or an evangelist. Rather, he worked tirelessly to raise together with Mary his foster son, the Son of God. And though this in itself is the greatest of his service to God, St. Joseph still offered all of his laboring to Him, never remaining idle or in bored laziness. This is truly a man of God, and both men and women should pay attention to his unceasing devotion to giving all he was to the glorious will of his foster son. Even now, he prays and intercedes for us, ready to obtain for us the graces necessary for us to selflessly and tirelessly serve God in everything we do.

In this day and age, with cell phones, video games, the ever-expanding and ever-interconnecting internet, and all of the noisy and constantly changing events around us, we might fall into a rut when trying to do His will; getting distracted by all the things around us and forgetting exactly what we're trying to do. I myself have a 3DS, and had bought a new game for it recently, playing it almost obsessively and having almost all of my thoughts on it, even though I know that God is trying to tell me things He wants me to do! He's always trying to tell all of us something that He wants us to know or do, and He doesn't ask much of us. God, the Lord Almighty, is constantly shouting to us how much He loves us, how much He wants us to be completely given to Him, and also the ways He's wants to do so, the things we can participate in for His will. Yet we focus so much on the ever-shifting newsfeeds, the newest articles on our favorite reddit pages, texting someone to try and pass the time, and even with all of these, so many people are still so bored!

We, as a society, have become idle. We spend our time trying to get out of boredom, and then we complain that we never have any relaxation, and so we try to get ourselves bored again. When we know it'd be a great idea to pray the Rosary to come closer to our Mother Mary, or to read Scripture to know Christ better, or to evangelize to someone, we often think to ourselves, "Ah, I'll get it done later", and later keeps becoming "later" until one day we decide we just don't care anymore. However, look at St. Joseph: Working tirelessly all the time, never stopping from giving glory to God in His labors, never bored and so never idle, always living a life for God. We need to imitate St. Joseph if we are to live our lives for God, never ceasing to listen to what He's telling us, never letting our desire to relax become important than the will He has for us. And like St. Joseph, we must do so in the everyday things, the simple lifestyle that we all still have as at least a part of our normal lives, giving everything we do to God, not just the big things.

Because that is what love is: Never stopping to serve the beloved, never stopping to do everything for their sake, never giving in to laziness and boredom in this chaotic world. We need to love in everything we do in our daily go-abouts, to love through the plain words we speak and the actions we do, especially by putting away the distracting things for other, purposeful things, for prayer, for Scripture, for acts of mercy and evangelizing. We need to live "the working man's" life, just like St. Joseph.

St. Joseph, St. Josemaria Escriva, and all you holy men and women, please pray for us!

All you readers, please pray for the writers and editors of the page!