Aug. 31, 2008: 22nd Sunday Ordinary (A)
What do you think is the top job that kids want when they grow up? In other words, what do kids want to be when they grow up? Let's do an informal poll. Among you young people, who wants to be a firefighter, police officer, doctor, nurse, accountant, lawyer, actor/actress, and lastly video game tester? They say that young people gravitate toward the role of heroes, helping and saving others. Isn't it interesting that even at an young age, we tend to identify work with helping others. And also isn't it interesting that we put two things together--to work and to be. A child saying 'I want to be a firefighter' is saying more than desire to do the things that firefighters do; a child is also saying that he wants to be a person who will risk their own life to save the lives of others.
I'm sure your own children have asked this question: daddy and mommy, why do you go to work? How do you answer that question? Honey it's because it pays the bills. But putting dollar value on our work does not satisfy the curiosity of the little ones. For children, money may not be a good reason for mommy and daddy to be away from them the whole day. Is there an answer that is simple enough for children to understand yet it is profoundly truthful? I think there is. And many of us here may already have memorized that answer long time ago when we were kids. In the Baltimore Catechism, one of the first things to memorize was the following. Why did God make you? The answer is, "God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in heaven." In this short one sentence lies our purpose and mission for being who we are and what we are to do.
Sometimes we can forget who we are and our own mission in our work. Who are we? We are made in the image and likeness of God, reborn in the image of Christ through our baptism--worthy to be called a son or a daughter of God the Father, the Creator of the Universe. Our hands, our minds, and our feet are to be carrier of God's grace and love wherever we are, whatever we do. As Mother Teresa says we are to be a pencil in God's hands. So we are not made for work. We work because work is only a means to fulfill our unique mission that God gives us. But in our culture, work can become the goal. Let me give you an example. I was a hospital chaplain at a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama over a summer period. On the wall of nurse's station on one floor there were numerous charts and statistics. These weren't charts of the patients, but they were charts measuring how productive each nurse was. The number compared one nurse against another on that floor; this index showed how many patients were served by each nurse per hour. And this index was compared to other floors. This kind of emphasis of productivity and statistics happens in all other fields as well. In and of themselves, they are tools for keeping us on task and to improve the way we work. However, in keeping up the scores and statistics, the unique human person who does the work to serve another human person gets lost. What's left are numbers on spreadsheet to be pushed around from email to email, from powerpoint to powerpoint slides.
In contrast, when a young woman arrives at the door of Mother Teresa's convent to join the Missionary of Charity, she is told from day one that the sisters are not there to be numbers. As much as Mother Teresa saw great increase in vocations to her order, she said, "none of us has joined Missionary of Charity to become a number. There are much work to be done, but still I don't need numbers. We are Missionary of Charity, carriers of God's love." She says, "Our work is not our vocation. Our vocation is to belong to Jesus."
In today's gospel, Peter is reprimanded for mistaking work as his vocation. Jesus mentions to Peter his mission received from the Father, to be crucified and to rise again. But Peter would rather see Jesus continue his successful evangelization tour, drawing more people and more fame. To this thinking Jesus tells Peter, "You are not thinking as God does but as human beings do." It's easy for us to be like Peter, to want to see great results of our work, to be productive, to be praised and liked for our work. Who does not mind seeing great miracles, people being healed, great number of fans, and bread multiplied to feed 5,000? But Jesus tells Peter that his own vocation is not the miraculous work, but to carry the cross. St. Paul reminds us in our Second Reading that our vocation is to belong to Jesus, to offer ourselves to Jesus. "I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." So why do we go to work? We can show our children that we go to work to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him by daily carrying of our cross in our service for one another.
I'm sure your own children have asked this question: daddy and mommy, why do you go to work? How do you answer that question? Honey it's because it pays the bills. But putting dollar value on our work does not satisfy the curiosity of the little ones. For children, money may not be a good reason for mommy and daddy to be away from them the whole day. Is there an answer that is simple enough for children to understand yet it is profoundly truthful? I think there is. And many of us here may already have memorized that answer long time ago when we were kids. In the Baltimore Catechism, one of the first things to memorize was the following. Why did God make you? The answer is, "God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in heaven." In this short one sentence lies our purpose and mission for being who we are and what we are to do.
Sometimes we can forget who we are and our own mission in our work. Who are we? We are made in the image and likeness of God, reborn in the image of Christ through our baptism--worthy to be called a son or a daughter of God the Father, the Creator of the Universe. Our hands, our minds, and our feet are to be carrier of God's grace and love wherever we are, whatever we do. As Mother Teresa says we are to be a pencil in God's hands. So we are not made for work. We work because work is only a means to fulfill our unique mission that God gives us. But in our culture, work can become the goal. Let me give you an example. I was a hospital chaplain at a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama over a summer period. On the wall of nurse's station on one floor there were numerous charts and statistics. These weren't charts of the patients, but they were charts measuring how productive each nurse was. The number compared one nurse against another on that floor; this index showed how many patients were served by each nurse per hour. And this index was compared to other floors. This kind of emphasis of productivity and statistics happens in all other fields as well. In and of themselves, they are tools for keeping us on task and to improve the way we work. However, in keeping up the scores and statistics, the unique human person who does the work to serve another human person gets lost. What's left are numbers on spreadsheet to be pushed around from email to email, from powerpoint to powerpoint slides.
In contrast, when a young woman arrives at the door of Mother Teresa's convent to join the Missionary of Charity, she is told from day one that the sisters are not there to be numbers. As much as Mother Teresa saw great increase in vocations to her order, she said, "none of us has joined Missionary of Charity to become a number. There are much work to be done, but still I don't need numbers. We are Missionary of Charity, carriers of God's love." She says, "Our work is not our vocation. Our vocation is to belong to Jesus."
In today's gospel, Peter is reprimanded for mistaking work as his vocation. Jesus mentions to Peter his mission received from the Father, to be crucified and to rise again. But Peter would rather see Jesus continue his successful evangelization tour, drawing more people and more fame. To this thinking Jesus tells Peter, "You are not thinking as God does but as human beings do." It's easy for us to be like Peter, to want to see great results of our work, to be productive, to be praised and liked for our work. Who does not mind seeing great miracles, people being healed, great number of fans, and bread multiplied to feed 5,000? But Jesus tells Peter that his own vocation is not the miraculous work, but to carry the cross. St. Paul reminds us in our Second Reading that our vocation is to belong to Jesus, to offer ourselves to Jesus. "I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." So why do we go to work? We can show our children that we go to work to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him by daily carrying of our cross in our service for one another.
