A Blessing (For This Labor Day)

 

A Blessing

May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret

  love and warmth of your heart.

May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.

May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal

   to those who work with you and to those who see and receive

   your work.

May your work never weary you.

May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration,

   and excitement.

May you be present in what you do.

May you never become lost in the bland absences.

May the day never burden.

May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day

    with dreams, possibilities, and promises.

May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.

May you go into the night blessed, sheltered, and protected.

May your soul calm, console and renew you.

 

     -John O’Donohue

 

Reading these words by the Irish former priest and poet John O’Donohue woke me up! That’s really what this Labor Day holiday ought to be about. Not the sales. Not the “end of summer.” Not simply a day off, or the reminder that another school year is upon us. It is about soul work. May the Light of your soul guide you! May you be present in what you do.

 

The poetry in the Wisdom of Ben Sirach sings of the value of work with our hands. Without such gifts and skills, says the poet, “no city can be in habited.”[ Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 38:27-32] While Jesus says the work we do is not to be for wealth, but to serve God and God’s will.[ Matthew 6:19-24]

 

What is work? The other day my Bishop, Eugene Taylor Sutton, reminded us that the Rule of St. Benedict says work is the friend of the soul itself - a means by which we love and serve God. God who is present within us and beyond us. God who is Love. As O’Donohue urges us, to be present in what we do, we must first be present to the presence within us and beyond us. Elsewhere O’Donohue reminds us that the body is the visible shoreline of the invisible world of the soul. And that the soul does not reside in the body, but rather the body is to be found in the soul. It is this soul in which we live and move and have our being that is to guide the work that we do.

 

In our catechism there is a phrase I return to over and over again. It is in the description of the ministry we all share: “… and according to the gifts given to us, we are to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world.”[BCP 855] Or, Sister Joan Chittister writes in her book, The Illuminated Life, “We must restore the human community. We must grow in concert with the God who is within. We must be healers in a harsh society…We must begin to do life, to be with people, to accept circumstances, to bring good to evil in ways that speak of the presence of God in every moment.”[pp 81-82] And it is St. Paul who reminds us that we all have different gifts. The gifts you have are meant for me. The gifts I have are meant for you. It is only in the giving and sharing of our gifts that God’s work is done. And this means we are not all meant to be about this work of reconciliation in the world in the same ways, doing the same things. All of our gifts, all together, are necessary to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world.

 

All work is soul work. Our bodies act it out, but it is the soul, the residence of the body, that accepts the gifts God has given each of us to do the work of what Jesus may have known as tikkun olam – repair of the world. The repair of a broken world, a harsh society in need of healing and reconciliation.

 

This Labor Day, we think of all the essential workers who have been working day and night, working longer and extra shifts, while others of us have been able to quarantine at home, work from home, and stay out of the public sphere. Not only doctors, nurses, first responders and public safety officers, but the people who clean and maintain hospitals and precinct houses; those who continue to haul our trash away; those workers who are in our Supermarkets and Grocery stores long hours every day exposed to hundreds of people a day who may or may not take best practices seriously. Think of the teachers and students and custodians in states and districts who are required to be in classrooms, mechanics who repair cars, plumbing, electrical issues. Think of the 22 million who have filed for Unemployment since March. This may be the most unusual Labor Day since its founding in 1882.

 

Then think of what is needed in respect to healing a broken and harsh world; think of how we might reconcile seemingly unreconcilable differences. How might we make a difference? How can we be present in what we say and do? How can we allow the light of the soul to guide us? The truth of the matter is that the world needs you. The Church needs you. Jesus needs you. The great Creator God needs you and your gifts for this work of healing and reconciliation. They all need your Love and the Light of your soul. Let Jesus live in you. Go forward with him! May Christ be present in you. May the Light of your soul guide you. May you be present in what you do. Work is the friend of the soul itself - a means by which we love and serve God. This is the Labor Day we need this year. And every year. Amen. So be it. It is truth.