Touching heaven through our work

WE don’t have to die first before we can already have a feel of heaven, if not practically touch it. By doing our ordinary daily work, whether big or small, in public or hidden at home, and doing it with real love for God and for others, we can already achieve this ideal that is proper to us.

For this to take place, we of course have to work with working faith and piety, since without them, we will not be aware that working with love for God and others can already connect us with our final home in heaven. It’s love that is fueled by faith and piety that does the trick, so to speak.

Working with love for God and others lends sacredness to whatever task we are doing, no matter how mundane it is. And that is because as image and likeness of God, as God’s children whose creation is still a work in progress in our earthly life, any kind of work, as long as it is honest and is part of our responsibility, enters into the dynamics of God’s providence over us, his continuing work of our very own creation.

That ordinary daily work we have, which we often take for granted, is where we usually encounter God. It is where we correspond to God’s continuing creation of us, until we conform to his radical will for us to make us his image and likeness and children of his.

This means that our work is not simply ours, but is rather a work with God. In fact, it is first of all the work of God, before it is also our work. It’s important that we be keenly aware of this truth so that we can consciously and freely work in sync as much as possible with God’s will and ways.

We need to spend time to make this truth sink into our consciousness and become an abiding guide in our daily life. If our work does not make us feel at least the presence of God, let alone, get to know his will and ways, then we are not working the way we should work.

In a sense, our work becomes prayer, even if it involves dirt and the so-called “blood, sweat and tears.” Our work is where we engage ourselves with God and enter into the dynamics of love that characterizes our relationship with God and with others.

Indeed, our work can somehow be considered as sacred, because in spite of its worldly character, it is still a work with God and a work of God. This is a truth that we have to appreciate some more and act accordingly.

We should disabuse ourselves from the thought that to be sacred would involve us only in activities inside churches or that things should be done in silence and in great solemnity. Sacredness can be had also in the middle of the world, in the hustle and bustle of mundane concerns and businesses. The only crucial thing to remember is that irrespective of where we are, we should always be with God and do things with him.

We should train ourselves to feel very much at home with God in heaven even while working here on earth. Truth is God is actually leading us to him and is bringing heaven also to us through our earthly activities.

We need to feel this truth of our faith, overcoming whatever awkwardness we may feel at the beginning. We have to process this very important task, teaching our mind and our heart, our senses and even our instincts to conform to this very sublime reality that we often take for granted.