We Are the Work of God's Hands

Work, especially manual work, has always enjoyed special esteem in the Cistercian tradition since it gives the monks the opportunity of sharing in the divine work of creation and restoration, and of following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. This hard and redeeming work is a means of providing a livelihood for the brothers and for other people, especially the poor. It expresses solidarity with all workers. Moreover work is an occasion for a fruitful asceticism that fosters personal development and maturity. It promotes health of mind and body and contributes greatly to the unity of the whole community.

I began this reflection with Cst. 26 from the Constitutions of our Order. Our annual procession through the fields and the bakery highlight the traditional nature of our manual work. The atmosphere of these September rites felt melancholy. We gathered at the novitiate, that has no novices. We blessed the bakery in which many of us no longer work. We asked God’s blessings on fields that we no longer cultivate. Then we passed the graves of our brothers who labored to build the monastery for us to live in. My mind wandered to a comment made by Pope Benedict concerning his resignation. He said God had inspired in him an absolute desire to dedicate his life to prayer rather than push on as pope. We recall the words he penned in his letter of resignation: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”

Our aging monastery's halting procession brings us face-to-face with our personal limitations, but also reminds us of our higher calling. We have been called to render worship to the divine majesty in a hidden life that is marked by solitude, silence, assiduous prayer and joyful penitence. By our fidelity to the monastic way of life we build up the Body of Christ. As I pondered the beauty of the fields and our human limitations, I was reminded of a comment made by Gandhi. “Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.”

Confronted with our physical limitations, we are challenged to present our lives to God as spiritual worship. Having nothing to show for ourselves, we are asked to present the little we have to God as a sacrifice of praise. Conversatio Morum demands our daily death to sin and clinging to virtue and love. When we humbly admit that we can do nothing of ourselves, the Holy Spirit can do great things in us. We rejoice today, not in the work of our hands, but in the fact that we are the work of God’s hands. We have only to let the Word of the Lord have its place in our hearts and it will produce a rich harvest. The vitality of the seed does not depend on our strength and productive labor.


Prayer of John Wesley

I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by you or laid aside by you, enabled for you or brought low by you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Father Jerome Machar, OSCO