Just a few weeks ago, in the episode from the Gospel where He was in the holy house of Bethany, the home of his friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus, Our Lord chastised Martha, and by extension he chastised us, not to be obsessed with work. The better part of our life, he taught, lay in listening toHim.
Today, in the lectionary that She provides to us, our Holy Mother Church, seeks to deepen that lesson. Every single reading offers us a lesson about the true worth, or value, of work. Vanity, or pointless, is the work that we put in through the entirety of our lives, only to hand over to another – very often our children – who have not laboured. And do we not know the script? Bereft of values, but flush with possessions, rather than build on the wealth their parents leave behind, all too often children squander away the resources they have inherited. All our sorrow, our grief, our anxiety and toil, turn out, in the end, to be pointless.
In the Gospel Our Lord warns us that all the plans we have, the plans towards which we may work, may all in one shot come to nothing, because the angel of death visits us, or some misfortune levels all our plans to the ground – revealing them to be merely castles built on sandy soil, or indeed the quicksand of worldly desire!
So, then, what are we to do?
I do not believe that Our Lord is asking us not to work, not to strive for excellence, or not to build up surplus that we can save away for a rainy day, or indeed for future generations. All of these are good things. However, Our Lord is asking us to ensure that all these activities are motivated by a poverty of spirit – i.e. a recognition that we are poor and we need God, and Godliness. In other words, recognize that all the work we do ought to be motivated only by a desire to inherit the kingdom of heaven, for otherwise we will be consigned the fire of hell for all eternity.
As Our Lord teaches:
Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life (Jn 6:27)
Echoing his Master, Saint Paul cautions us in his letter to the Colossians that we read today,
If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
He continues,
Put to death…the part of you that are earthly:
Immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
And perhaps the most important lesson we should take away:
And the greed that is idolatry
My dear brothers and sisters, work is good, and profit is good, but only if this work, this profit, is directed towards the heavenly, and not towards the earthly.
Let me reframe this for you in terms that may perhaps be more comprehensible. Let everything that you do, be for the glory of God, even when it is making profit. In other words, there is such a thing as a just profit. The rightful reward for your hard work and innovation. A profit wrung by squeezing those who work for you, or cheating your clients or customers, through the giving or taking of bribes, is not the work of God. As Our Lord teaches us:
let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven (Mt 5:16).
St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose feast we celebrated a few days ago, instructs us to do everything for the greater glory of God. And St. José Maria Escriva teaches us that our work should sanctify the world. In other words, we should walk the path of holiness even as we do our daily work and indeed lay up some resources for our children to get a head start in life.
My dear brothers and sisters, the path of holiness is not necessarily a difficult path. On the contrary, the path of holiness is within the grasp of every single Catholic. Holiness is possible in our daily lives, if only we do not commit the sin of worshiping money and work – sins that are all too common in contemporary life.
But do not fear! The teaching of our Holy Mother Church is the voice of Christ. Listen to it carefully, so that you can educate your conscience, and let the conscience guide your actions. When you swerve from the path of holiness, confess and get right back on that royal road. As the response to the psalm this Sunday teaches us;
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
May Our Lord bless and keep you this week on the straight and narrow path of holiness.
(This homily was written to be preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on 3 Aug 2025.)
(Image reference: “St. Joseph the worker,” Pietro Annigoni, 1964, Basilica di San Lorenzo, Florence.)
