Course XVI - Teaching 8: Sanctified Work

God, great universal worker, teaches daily to man His lesson on work through Nature, but man achieves it with sweat, blood and strenuous sacrifices; it is hard to him to overcome obstacles on the line of duty.
More than anyone, a disciple that follows the Divine Master’s steps experiences these sufferings, and that is why he claims from the depths of his heart:
“Truly, Master of mine, my depression is so great that I fall exhausted. I see how my work, transformed into a tyrannical god, has totally absorbed my vitality. Idealistic dreams of my youth, healthy aspirations and the noblest yearnings have faded away.”
In the beginning, I said: “I shall never work as other people do, who are so methodical, ordinary and corrupt! I shall work in my own way. But afterwards, those open and frightful jaws devoured me, and I became a slave of the work out of habit. This does not bother me, but the frightful established method exhausts me, embitters my life, and deprives me of sweet spiritual hours. On a little scale, I feel responsible for the suffering of mankind, and for hunger, misery, wars and every evil derived from a disordered world economy, and I can do nothing to avoid it, since I am absorbed in my routine and in the blind efforts of my daily work.”
Seemingly, these words make the atmosphere in working places be thicker, the noise of machines more deafening, and the weight of the routine more overwhelming.
With a divine serenity, the Master replies to his beloved disciple:
“Certainly, I see you bored in the line of your duty, since interest and vanity do not tie you to the work in an exclusive way. You are missing those happy hours amid readings, prayer and seclusion, and this cheers Me up.”
“But I wish this good to be permanent, a gift of all your days; I want to see you happy also during your working time.”
“If you work for the sake of work, with love, then you work for Me. Perchance did not you say this morning, I am all yours; I want to devote myself to You? So, I wish you to devote Me your work. Dispose of boredom and tiredness, and think this: I am at your side, working with you.”
“I know quite well how heartbreaking is to be subject day by day to a fixed schedule, to a routine labor, to a narrow scene, at a damp and heavy environment, with factories and offices. I see quite well how overwhelmed are you; your head does not respond to action in due course, and tiredness paralyses your hands. I see the hard or indifferent look of your companions, and the watchful and severe eyes of your chiefs.”
“Your labor may be intellectual or manual, but present working circumstances make them be more painful than before. A worker is affected by competition, enormous tyrannical machines, great factories, poor salaries and a restraining city.”
“But, I wish for you to continue your task. This is your place; live now your present, and try to make use of it as much as possible. Find happiness in your assigned task, and see on several phases of it how useful you can be to mankind. I wish your individual work, indispensable and non transferable; your efforts to improve and dignify work are building a better world to workers of tomorrow; your labor shall not be in vain.”
“Work for the sake of work. If you cannot dispose of your method of work, then there is a gesture of redemption in you because of your good wishes. You must remain there, tied to your chain. Do not you see how this suffering is being transmuted into a good action, and that this action expresses what you want to do? Work, suffer and love; through the sorrowful face of mankind, look at the expression of that monster that has to be destroyed.”
“A new light can be glimpsed on the horizon. Work shall not be a routine effect, eagerness for lucre shall stop, and those who work for the sake of work shall be the winners. You shall be like them, and then your work shall be admirable.”
“Soul of mine, continue your task until the end of your working day. Sanctify your work by desiring to serve and to be of benefit to mankind. In spite of all, men burn their dregs by working, and conquer a redeeming attribute of tomorrow through their energies and life. So, suffer, expect and trust, Son of mine.”
Slowly, sweetly, melodiously, the Master’s Voice fades away on the pure atmosphere from which he descended and spoke to his beloved Son in a holocaust of love. And his disciple feels again how new powers arise within in order to conquer, with his own saving blood, a light of new happiness for the sorrowful Humanity.
The disciple chooses this redeeming Standard at his time of human pain.