Quote of the Week
It is not true that there is opposition between being a good Catholic and serving civil society faithfully. In
the same way there is no reason why the Church and the State clash when they proceed with the lawful exercise of their respective authorities, in fulfillment of the mission God has entrusted to them.
Those who affirm the contrary are liars, yes, liars! They are the same people who honor a false liberty, and ask us Catholics “to do them the favor” of going back to the catacombs.
Your task as a Christian citizen is to help see Christ’s love and freedom preside over all aspects of modern life: culture and the economy, work and rest, family life and social relations.
Many things, whether they be material, technical, economic, social, political or cultural, when left to themselves, or left in the hands of those who lack the light of the faith, become formidable obstacles to the supernatural life. They form a sort of closed shop which is hostile to the Church.
You, as a Christian and, perhaps, as a research worker, writer, scientist, politician or laborer, have the duty to sanctify those things. Remember that the whole universe–as the Apostle says–is groaning as in the pangs of labor, awaiting the liberation of the children of God.
Love your own country: it is a Christian virtue to be patriotic. But if patriotism becomes nationalism, which leads you to look at other people, at other countries, with indifference, with scorn, without Christian charity and justice, then it is a sin.
It is not patriotism to justify crimes or to deny the rights of other peoples.
St. Josemaría Escrivá, Furrow, nos. 301, 302, 311, 315, 316
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Not very easy under the yoke of capitalism.
Can all professions be “sanctified through the light of the faith,” as he seems to suggest? This is my major beef with the spirituality of Opus Dei.
Michael,
I’m with Dorothy Day a 100% on how some professions cannot sanctify us, period, such as professions in the fashion or advertising industry. From the little I personally know about Opus Dei, they don’t give directives as to what professions are better than others and I actually agree with that in the sense that it should be up to the responsible and conscious Christian to figure out the paradox between their missionary vocation and their current job and not be a directive from an “organization.” In fact, not even the Church does that.
I’ve been to Opus Dei retreats and spiritual direction type of events and based on their spiritual directives/guidance if you don’t figure out that your job actually contradicts your Christian mission, then there’s something wrong. I think is better to make a decision dictated by your faith and relationship with God rather than being dictated by a group within the Church you belong to.
I think Escriva’s point is that professions such as fashion-designing/marketing and advertising are not ‘unholy’ per se–what’s wrong with nice clothes or with promoting a good product? The problem is that they can be taken over by folks with the wrong values, and turned, as he puts it, into ‘closed shops’. Should Christians then, simply abandon the field to the other side?
I adopt sort of a Day/Escriva notion of the sanctity of work. Like Day, I think there are professions out there that are so remote from providing a true, viable service to humanity (i.e., sports analysts, fashion designers) and are so inextricably bound up with a consumer society that the hope of sanctifying oneself through them may be futile. I have not worked this all out in my mind just yet, but I think Escriva and Day can, indeed, be brought into harmony with a few modifications to each one’s understanding of the nature of work.
Isn’t this the wrong attitude, that the work sanctifies the worker?
Seems backwards and flipping the point: it’s the Christian who sanctifies the work, or rather, things flow downward from God: God sanctifies the worker who sanctifies the earth via work. Placing source of sanctification as coming from the work is where people can be led to think that no good values can be garnered from certain professions.
Maybe a useful distinction, though, is that of professions which are truly ordered to something good, true and beautiful. There are activities that don’t seek those (e.g. prostitution which has distorted a good) but the other examples thus given do not seem so clear cut.
Doesn’t it point out that the fashion industry or advertising is precisely what NEEDS Christians to sanctify it that it is held in such low regard? These areas are those that desperately need some direction other than the downward trend they’re currently taking.
Can one really not think of anything true, good, or beautiful about sports? How about just exemplifying the incredible capabilities of the Creator in making humans capable of such feats?
Just some thoughts.
The professions I am thinking of are those related to the killing industry, i.e. war-making, profiteering, and everything related to it. I’ll be blogging on this soon.
Yes, it’s hard to see how a Blackwater mercenary or a Halliburton war profiteer can sanctify their work.
Morning Minion,
Why could a Blackwater employee sanctify his work?
Well, does the Catholic Church at large speak out against Christians working in the war industry?
Katerina, sadly, no it does not.
war industry: how about the development of non-lethal weapons? Or the development of more accurate ordinance which minimizes collateral damage? Both of these would increase the odds of achieving a just-war theory’s jus in bellum.
As for war profiteers… I think the distinction of a properly ordered profession can be used here: i.e. one that is ordered to the true, good and beautiful. War profiteering is ordered toward greed and material gain. But one could, conceivably, be in weapons development and have a profession ordered toward the good of saving human lives (on both sides of the conflict).
Can all professions be “sanctified through the light of the faith….”
All legitimate professions can. That’s why a well-formed conscience is necessary. We have to be able to distinguish formal cooperation with evil from remote material cooperation, e.g., if I sell baseball bats and some thug uses one to beat someone’s head in.
Why can’t a Christian sanctify the fashion industry or the ad industry? I would much rather watch ads and see billboards designed by conscientious Christians than people trying to outdo each other with debauchery.
As for Halliburton, they sell products and services to the petroleum industry. What is sinful about that? instruct the ignorant.
Yes, it’s hard to see how a Blackwater mercenary or a Halliburton war profiteer can sanctify their work.
This sort of inflammatory language reflects an intractable bias. The brave men working for security contractors in Iraq are by and large doing honorable work, protecting the lives of the innocent from those who seek to do them harm. That’s noble work, and I don’t see anything that renders it intrinsically unsuitable as a means of sanctification. I echo Pauli’s question about Hallburton.
I understand labor how John Paul II defined it in Laborem Exercens as a vehicle for man to realize his humanity, which is why he gives farming and working of the land a special place. Therefore, according to this understanding of labor, there is, if you will, a hierarchy of professions that makes us “more human” and help us in recognizing God in our everyday laboring.
Michael,
Wouldn’t it be great if it would! Opus Dei emphasizes so much Laborem Exercens in their spirituality and formation of the laity that the concept of “hierarchy” of professions does not go unnoticed.
Work(legitimate ofcourse) should be seen as a from of prayer. It can be dreary, it can be transcedental, but ultimately it can be viewed in context of suffering which ultimately upholds human dignity i.e. makes us more ‘human’ like Katerina said.
How do we discern when work is “not legitimate?”