Work is love made visible

“All bread is to be shared – that is revolution. We are called by Jesus, the son of Joseph, the worker, in this celebration of the Eucharist to change and to be transformed and to turn the world upside down. The first reading by Kahlil Gibran spoke of:  What it is to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.  It is to build a house with affection even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house“.

 This quotation above is an extract from the Reflection shared by Presentation Sisters (Pakistan Unit Delegates) on Day 11 of Congregational Gathering  (CG2018) that has just recently concluded  in Ireland.

And following, is part of the very beautiful text of what Kahlil Gibran wrote ‘On Work’:

You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons,
and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work
you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.

[…]

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart,
even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection,
even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy,
even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead
are standing about you and watching.

[…]

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste,
it is better that you should leave your work
and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference,
you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing,
you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

See link to  Reflections Section of CG2018 website to share in the riches of these days.