“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent” (John 6:29).
To have meaningful work is to know your life is a great blessing. Ask the unemployed, who suffer personal deflation and even a loss of identity when they leave a job without another one to take up. Others have jobs that, at any salary, demean and depress them, just to pay the bills.
The self-help shelves of bookstores offer titles about the benefits of a “purpose-driven life.” Happy are those who get up each day eager to take up their life’s purpose, or those who can look back over their job history and imagine God saying to them, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Blessed indeed are those who not only keep busy and bring home a paycheck, but have also discovered and devoted themselves to the inner work of becoming mature human beings. Even more blessed are those who have also pursued hidden paths to wisdom and holiness through habits of prayer and discernment that align their souls with God and neighbor in love.
This is what John describes in the long discourses between Jesus and his disciples -- and even his enemies – in Chapter 6 of his Gospel on the “Bread of Life.” The sign of the multiplication of bread in the wilderness ultimately points to Jesus himself.
He is the Bread of Life sent by God, and those who find intimacy with Jesus -- just as food is intimate with those who eat it -- will share eternal life with him. Jesus’ work in the world is to reveal God who sent him. Therefore, our work is to receive Jesus, to believe in and know him intimately.
This is the “Joy of the Gospel” Pope Francis describes in one of his first letters to the church. Intimate life with God is our most important work. Happy are those who know that that their relationship with God through Jesus is the purpose of their lives.
God is hiring every day, calling us from our first waking moments to our final whispered prayers before sleep. “Seek first the kingdom of God, and everything else will be given you besides.”
