September 2019
Work not to
survive, but to live
Harry Scherer
Class of 2022
"In the sweat of your face you
shall eat bread till you return to the ground" (Genesis
3:19). God said this to Adam after he "listened to the
voice of [his] wife", namely, to eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil (3:17). As man defied the Lord
for this knowledge, work became toilsome. Before this act
of rebellion, man was still charged with work: "Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it"
(1:28). These actions required work, but it was because of
the active denial of the will of God that made this gift
of work burdensome.
Our modern ears might recoil at
the claim that work is a burden. Many of us consider
ourselves "workaholics", literally, addicted to work. As
alcoholism suggests a disordered use of alcohol,
workaholism suggests a disordered use of work. In fact,
the consequences of this obsession with work can define
the zeitgeist of our postmodern world. Persons in this
world are limited to their material production, regardless
of the manner in which this production was procured.
Thankfully, these problems were
addressed centuries ago. St. Antonio of Florence, a 15th
century Dominican theologian and economist, was in the
position to define the nature and end of work in order to
encourage the State to reign in unbridled mercantilism, in
the same way that distributes thought leaders in the 20th
century Church like Ven. Fulton Sheen, G.K. Chesterton and
Hilaire Belloc called for limitations to unbridled
capitalism. Blessed Antonio clearly and concisely stated
that "the object of making money is that we may provide
for ourselves and our dependents. The object of providing
for self and others is that one may live virtuously. The
object of living virtuously is to save our souls and
attain eternal happiness." My guess is that many who are
considered successful in modern terms would submit to the
first half of the first sentence and nothing more.
Consider the individualist
response to the first claim. "By denying or minimizing the
social and public character of the right of property," the
postmodern culture denigrates the purpose of production to
pure utility or pleasure (Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, 46).
The modern cultural response to the second and third claim
of Antonio would be simple: virtue does not exist or, if
it does, is irrelevant to our progressing society and
souls and eternal happiness does not exist because
everything is material and happiness cannot be eternal.
On the other side, I consider the
natural progression which Antonio suggests to be a
refreshing and rational explanation of the nature of work.
Outside of this understanding, work would seem pointless.
Without the grace to sanctify the work which we have
inherited as toilsome, why would we work at all? It is
this grace which inspired Augustine to proclaim: "Late
have I loved Thee, O beauty so ancient and new, late have
I loved Thee!" The liberating admission that work can be
done not just for the laboring individual but for others,
that this unselfish work can lead us directly to virtue
and that these good habits can, by the mercy of God, lead
us directly to our sanctification is a justification of
all our labors.
If these supernatural benefits
were not enough to instill a "work ethic" in all of us,
then the obligation to work will have to suffice.
Scripture confirms what reason informs us: "if anyone will
not work, let him not eat" (2 Th 3:10). These words
reinforce a common and perennial resentment among,
strangely enough, both the working and political class for
those who receive much for little work. Culturally, we
still accept that members of our society should work and
receive what is appropriate for that work. Because this
expectation revolves around a mentality which emphasizes
the production of workers, those for whom productive work
is difficult are deemed as less than human. Proof of this
claim can be found in mental handicap-selective abortions
in the Scandinavian countries and widespread sex-selective
abortions in many Asian countries. Again, the teaching of
St. Antonio provides an alternative method to this
utilitarian derision of our work. Because the teaching of
the Church regarding work does not limit its scope to mere
production, the value of work is elevated to that which
the human soul desires. For this reason, the small actions
of a pure soul with Down Syndrome participates in the real
meaning of work more than the tired labors of a CEO at a
major finance firm. The person with Down Syndrome
recognizes, at least passively, that true work is
sanctifying, while the CEO works sixty-hour weeks in vain.
After our work has been completed,
we have a temporary and final time of reposition. In this
earthly life, we can recognize the fruits of our labors
and take pride in our actions to the extent that Mother
St. Theresa of Calcutta took pride in her actions: "I am a
little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending
a love letter to the world." In her time of repose, Mother
Theresa considered the work of her hands as but an
extension of the hands of God. We, too, have this time of
repose to consider how we work, why we work and for whom
we work. In this time, we can consider these questions
from a merely superficial level when compared to our
eternal repose. This time of repose on earth is a
precursor to eternal contemplation of God, by His mercy.
Now, we have the opportunity to consider the words of St.
Paul when he says at the end of his second letter to
Timothy: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished
the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim 4:7). Now is our
opportunity to reclaim the authentic meaning of work in a
culture which is desperately seeking this truth.
Read other articles by Harry Scherer
Makin’ Mama
proud
Angela Guiao
MSMU Class of 2021
I grew up surrounded by hard work.
My mother is a single mother who worked as a nanny. Her
day started every day at 5 in the morning. She would make
me breakfast, pack my lunch, ready my clothes and school
things, then drive me to school because I was too scared
to take the school bus. Then she would go to work and
clean, cook, and care for someone else’s kids. This meant
that she never got a break unless the kids were asleep,
and she could only eat whenever the kids were preoccupied
with doing something else. Then afterwards, she would come
home and clean, cook, and care for me.
Ironically, I grew up not knowing
what hard work was. I took everything for granted. The
house we lived in, the food I ate. The clothes I wore. I
never realized that when I asked for the newest Skechers
and my mother bought them for me, it meant that she would
have to wear her holed up, breaking-apart, target sneakers
for another year. I didn’t realize that when I wanted a
new backpack and new clothes for the new school year even
though I didn’t need them, it meant that she would have to
wear her faded, raggedy t-shirts until she had enough
money to buy maybe one or two more pairs.
I grew up not having to work hard
for anything. Everything I wanted; I was given. Everything
I tried, I succeeded at. Although it may have seemed like
I was living the ideal life, when I entered college and my
mother was no longer by my side, it really hurt me when I
realized that I would actually have to put efforts into
things if I wanted to succeed. When things got even a
little difficult, I would give up or stop trying. I began
to focus on things that didn’t require much effort, like
hanging out with friends or going to parties. My grades
slipped. My personal life got messy.
And now I am entering Junior year
with a new mindset. Nothing is going to be given to me. I
have to work for it, and I have to work hard. A job isn’t
going to magically fall into my lap. There are objectives
that I have to fulfill, goals I have to achieve. And none
of that is going to happen if I don’t try. If I don’t
sacrifice the time, the effort it takes to do well and
prove myself, I am not going to achieve the future that I
am striving for.
The first goal I have this year is
to do better at school. I need to, to put things plainly,
get my life together. Lately, it’s been quite a mess. I
want to get good grades. Ideally that would mean straight
A’s, but I am in Intermediate Accounting so a B would be
achievement enough. The next goal I have is to be more
involved. There are so many job fairs, opportunities for
me to put myself out there. The Mount hosts all these
events that allow you to introduce yourself to others, to
meet people with the same interests, with the same goals.
I want to take advantage of those and secure my future.
Nothing is going to happen to me if I’m sitting at home
all day.
And a very important goal, not
only for this year but for my time here at the Mount, is
to strive to become someone I would be proud of on
graduation day. I don’t want to sit there in the
auditorium during graduation thinking to myself that I
could have done so much more. I want to be able to walk
proudly across the stage knowing that I did my absolute
best.
And, to be completely honest, to
achieve all these goals I have to start with one thing:
hard work. I have to work hard and understand what working
hard means. It does not mean just completing all the
assignments on time. It does not mean just being able to
answer any questions asked. It means understanding the
content, it means being able to carry a whole
conversation. It means being insightful and building new
ideas. It means becoming an expert in my major, and it
means knowing I will pass my CPA without a doubt.
What I realize today is that hard
work is not only about working hard. It is about
sacrificing the things that do not fulfill you for the
things that will make you truly happy. It is about
learning to prioritize, learning to focus intensely on a
goal. I was lucky and blessed enough of a kid to have a
mother whose sole happiness was providing for her
daughter.
For me, when I think about hard
work, I think about my mother. I think about setting
something above all else and doing everything possible to
achieve that goal. My mother wanted me to succeed. She
never wanted me to think I was at a disadvantage. She
wanted to level the playing field despite our situation.
The most important thing for her was making sure I never
had to work hard just to survive. She gave me the gift of
believing that I can become anything I want to be. This is
a thought that, surprisingly, a large number of students
are not lucky enough to believe.
So hard work for me is whatever it
takes for me to succeed. It is all the sleepless night,
skipped hangouts, study groups spent for me to graduate
university with flying colors. Hard work, for me, is
whatever it takes so that when I walk across the stage
during graduation, my mother will think to herself that
‘she did it’. So that she understands that all her hard
work and sacrifice was not all for nothing, that she
produced a child that she could be proud of.
For me, hard work means making my
mama proud.
Read other articles by Angela (Tongohan) Guiano
Working my way
up
Morgan Rooney
MSMU Class of 2020
Each year, as the coming semester
approaches, I get a surge of excitement thinking about
returning to the Mount and reuniting with friends. I think
about the good memories to come. I am eager to see my new
courses, schedule, and living situation which has been
very different each year I have spent in college. The one
thing that I always seem to forget about until it hits me
in the face is the workload. Some years aren’t so bad, and
some are more challenging.
Like many other college students,
I have spent long nights consuming more caffeine than is
healthy for my body to stay up and tackle that final paper
that had been weighing me down for weeks. I have been
guilty of accidentally procrastinating assignments to a
later time, causing me more stress than was necessary to
complete that assignment. I have spent hours of
preparation for performances which made my fingers feel
raw and sore from pressing down on those metal strings
repetitively until I believed I had gotten the music down.
I have spent time upset that I am not with certain people
who are not on this campus but I have an obligation to
myself to graduate and walk across the stage in the
spring.
As much as these moments have been
long and draining on not just my mind, but my body, I
would not change anything. When I finally accomplish the
task, I was set out to do, it was rewarding. It feels like
that time over the summer when I decided to take my bike
out. It wasn’t going to be a long ride, just enough to get
my energy out and give myself a challenge as I’m not as
athletic as I wish I was. My plan was to go eleven miles
with some short breaks for water along the way. When I was
closing in at the end, I had my final and most difficult
challenge. I needed to ride up the hill that ran alongside
the golf course before the path reached into the
neighborhood again. Halfway through, I questioned if I
should keep pedaling or stop, as I had already worked so
hard and "deserved a break." I kept going, afraid to face
the disappointment I would have for myself knowing that I
was about to climb the hill previously, and knowing that
each day, I grew weaker. When I reached the top, I was
relieved and filled with pride, with the exception of my
rapid breaths that refused to slow down, even during my
short water break.
Even though I know many others can
do much better, I was even more proud than the previous
times I had gone up that hill, as it required even more
work than it had been a few years ago, when I was likely
in slightly better shape than I am now. The more work I
spent on it, and the more time and effort it took, the
more rewarding the experience was.
Some people can do the same things
as I can in half the time. This could apply to running,
writing a paper, or learning a language. I had a friend in
high school who took the same French classes as me and I
felt like she truly picked up the language very quickly
when I still felt like a beginner with the equivalent
comprehension of a young toddler. The different that we
had was that she didn’t care as much about learning
French. It came easy to her and she didn’t appreciate it
in the same way as I did despite her straight A’s in the
course. She had no trouble dropping out of the course our
senior year to pursue something she had more interest in.
I continued to take French though high school, and now in
college. I am going to walk across the stage in May and
receive my degree in French and Communication. There is
nothing wrong with her not wanting to do French. There are
things that hold our interest and things that we are not
so passionate about. My point is that even though she was
really good at learning French and didn’t need to put as
much effort into it, she didn’t have a passion for it like
I did. I loved it and want to continue to pursue it. I
even spent a month there to study in the summer of 2018.
It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and I
would do it again in a heartbeat!
Hard work is something I truly
admire. I am fairly certain I will never continue school
all the way to get a PhD, and I knew this going in the
college. When considering what I wanted to study, I kept
in mind that I didn’t want to spend the next decade of my
life in school, falling deeper and deeper into debt and go
to elaborate lengths to complete medical school like some
of the people I went to high school with. I knew that I
didn’t want to go directly into graduate school after I
finish my studies as an undergraduate. I may continue one
day, but I knew that I wouldn’t feel ready yet. Although I
tried to keep these realistic expectations of myself when
making my decisions about higher education, I have a
newfound respect for the people I know who did go to
medical school, or directly into graduate school and
eventually getting their PhD. I respect those many years
of hard work, sleepless nights, and overwhelming stress.
The value of hard work is
something that cannot be replaced by anything monetary.
It’s a quality that I hope grows within myself and that I
love to see around me. Most of all, it is something that I
can use to positively influence the people around me. With
a little bit of luck and help from the people around me,
and always working hard, I am confident that I will be
happy with where I end up after I graduate, and I look
forward to the beginning of the rest of my life.
Read other articles by Morgan Rooney
Read Past Editions of Four Years at the Mount
