Doing things well

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

“HE has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” (Mk 7,37)

We may not be able to make the deaf hear and the mute speak, but we should try our best that we can also gain the same reputation as that of Christ. We should be known for doing whatever we have to do, well.

Obviously, the motive should never be one of pride or vanity, but rather the strong desire to be like Christ as we should. It should be a reputation that obviously would make us happy, but definitely it should make us more humble and eager to serve others, considering that everything that we achieve is actually a gift from God.

We have to understand that our work, whatever it is, whether it is high or low, is our usual way to give praise and glory to God. It is actually our way of cooperating in the abiding providence of God. We should not underestimate the value of our work. It can and should be our path to heaven. It should be done well.

That is why we should see to it first of all that our work is what God wants us to do. Our attitude toward our work should not be conditioned mainly, much less, solely, by the fact we like a particular kind of work or that we have the aptitude toward it, or the relevant qualities and skills for it. While these factors matter, they should not be the main criterion. Such an attitude can only confine us to our own interest.

What should guide us is what God and the others want and need from us, and how they want to be served. This attitude should determine the kind of work we do and the way we do it, and would bring us to tackle the objective requirements of the common good.

Having determined that, we should love our work, doing it as best that we can. And this can mean that we carry it out very conscientiously, “squeezing” each hour for all it is worth. We should work in such a way that we would always be short of time for finishing what we would like to do.

It can also mean that we look very carefully after the details in finishing our daily work. We should lovingly exert the necessary effort for it and embrace the sacrifices involved—that is, the setbacks, the difficulties, the tiredness and fatigue, etc. 

These are normal occurrences in our daily work that we should not anymore be surprised about. We just have to be prepared for them, since they are occasions to grow in our love for God and others. In short, in our holiness.

We should work in such a way that we can say that we bring them to the end. Our work should make us feel good as we go to bed. There should be peace and joy, the sensation that despite the drama of life, things are resolved somehow. We should feel the sensation that we have arrived home somehow, a sense of reaching our final goal.

This can only happen if ending the day well is associated with reconciling ourselves with God regardless of how things in our life are at the end of the day. With God, everything is taken care of.

That’s when we can truly say that we have done all things well!

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com