(This article first appeared in the September print edition of the Hendersonian.)
More than 2,000 years ago, the Prophet Amos told Israel that if one wants to stand before God on the Sabbath, then that person must do justice the rest of the week. For Christians, this means that the same God we worship on Sunday is the same God we meet at work on Monday.
For me, this realization began 25 years ago when I left the university as a teacher and began to work in a parish—and I started visiting parishioners at their workplace. I would ask them two simple questions:
“What do you do?” And: “How do you feel about what you do?”
Later, I would invite them to a small-group discussion on the relationship between faith and work.
When I met with a small group of workers that I had visited, I told them up front that spirituality at work is:
1) Doing a competent job—“a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay”
2) Being a good team member (the modern face of work is that we work on teams)
3) Affirming co-workers for their good work
If there is one thing I have learned from our discussions, it’s that workers resent ‘slackers’ who do not pull their own weight at work so that others must compensate for them.
If you are a good worker and a good team or crew member, people will notice you—as they notice everything about you at work. And eventually they will wonder about what makes you tick and then (and only then) can you talk about your Christian faith.
When I would preach on the Labor Day weekend, as I often did, I would point out to people that the most important sign in the church is the Exit Sign. After they have been renewed and energized by their worship, they need to march out of there and make the world more the way God wants it to be.
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Father Anthony Shonis first came to western Kentucky in 1966. After being ordained a Catholic priest in 1971, he taught for the next 29 years at Owensboro Catholic High, The Pontifical College Josephinum, and Brescia University. His most challenging and rewarding ministry was when he worked as a parish priest for 20 years, 14 of which were at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Henderson.
