BY FR. LUIGI GIUSSANI
to a group of workers (CDO) in Milan, January 1981
I am very touched by the invitation made to me to address you
because I know I am talking to people who are responding to God
with all their energy and from the very depths of their souls
- souls which are often burdened with dramatic worries. I also
feel a bit awkward because I am not involved in any of the “works”
of the “Company of Works” as you all are. However,
there is something which unites us and not just individually but
rather lies at the source of your initiatives. It is this I wish
to speak about, for without it all our efforts, all our building
would be in vain – “in vain doth he build who builds
without the Lord”.
I would like to begin by referring to some passages from the Book
of Deuteronomy which appear in the breviary readings for this
week. In these passages Moses encourages his people to be aware
that God has chosen them and loved them. God has shown this same
love towards us by calling us into existence, giving us a task,
a destiny and sustaining us with his presence along the way. Between
the call and the destiny lies a journey and this journey is made
up of your daily tasks.
This is what Moses says to the people of Israel:
"You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your
God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded
you. And you should do
what is good in the sight of the Lord, that you may be happy,
and that you may go in and take possession of the good land which
the Lord swore to give to your
fathers." Dt. 6, 17-18
"And the Lord has commanded us to observe all these laws
and to fear the Lord our God, so as to be happy for ever and to
survive, as we do to this day." Dt.6,24
"Keep his laws and commandments as I give them to you today,
so that you and your children after you, may prosper and live
long in the country that the Lord your God is giving you forever."
Dt.4,40
For Your Happiness
"So that you may be happy": this "good news"
lies at the heart of what God says to man. The very heart of God
will be pierced for this word, so that this word, happiness, becomes
a reality. Everything happens in order that this word which came
in time and space remains fulfilled for eternity. The Lord, the
mystery who makes all things, calls us into existence so that
we may be happy forever. And so the task to which He calls you
every day and the "works" you do have this aim; that
your lives may be happier. Everything has been given to you for
this reason. And I simply want to say to you that when you feel
tired or there is some worry which returns every morning when
you wake up, this is not so that you may be down-hearted but rather
for the sake of your happiness. This is the expression which St.
Paul uses to recuperate the word "happiness" referred
to by Moses: "Be joyful, I repeat be joyful". I say
this to you because without this perspective in your souls you
cannot even work well, and living would be unjust. That is why
it is right for a mother to give birth because the child is destined
for happiness. This is why it is right that we get up in the morning
and go to work, even though it may be difficult, because it will
lead us to our happiness. And the growth of this certainty over
time is the joy which St. Paul speaks about. So my desire for
you first and foremost is that, in your work, this awareness of
the happiness to which you are called may be a source of joy.
In this way you will be able to enjoy your work and work well
because without zest one cannot work well.
Imitation of the Creator
Moses also tells us the condition needed for this happiness. The
Book of Deuteronomy is basically a set of laws, a reminder of
God's commands. But before we talk about "laws" or "commands"
it might be better to recall the original command of God. The
original law is that we have been given life in order to imitate
our Creator by becoming creative. Life has been given to us so
that we may live "creatively" (in a meeting of the Association
of "Works" this word must be decisive). And time is
the fabric within which we express this "creativity".
In fact we participate in the mystery in so far as it is creative.
When we feel strongly about something or get the inspiration or
desire to do something, to create a new entity, this is our creativity.
"Works" define that creativity to which God called you
through the circumstances of life. It is important that our lives
be creative so that they may be happy and attain the goal and
destiny of happiness for which we are made. This is my wish for
you, that this sense of creativity, this dedication to creativity
may make your lives fulfilling and meaningful.
The Law of Obedience
There is a condition however and this brings us back to the notion
of "law" or "command" in Moses. In order to
create "works" it is not enough to meet people or encounter
situations which move us or make us get involved. There must be
an attention to relationships which we do not totally define but
which we must above all respect. There are certain things we have
to respect, to recognise, to embrace and to accept if we are to
be creative. Here we also touch on a factor which at first appears
to be "negative", that is, toil ("With the sweat
of your brow..." Gen. 4) There is an "obedience"
which from within must govern the initiative you undertake, the
risk you take on. First and foremost it must be an obedience to
factors which do not depend on you but impose themselves on you:
you must respect these factors. All the effort this requires must
be part and parcel of your creativity and the love with which
you do things. Without toil and effort we will not continue to
love what we do but rather what we do becomes our enemy. My second
wish for you is that you do not fear the toil necessitated by
your work, because since God came among us and took on our human
condition, human effort has taken on a whole new meaning called
the Cross. We have to embrace the Cross which is inherent in what
we take on and in our humanity. We must embrace it with generosity
of spirit, that is with hope. To wish that fatigue does not impede
you, that the Cross does not scandalise you, is in fact to wish
that your lives be full of hope. When I say life, I mean the moment
which is passing, the hitches, the unforeseen difficulties, the
plans which are not working out. If you keep in your hearts the
conditions I am speaking about today even the heaviest cross will
not deprive your lives of joy.
For the Benefit of Humanity
Our creativity allows us to participate in the gesture with which
God originally revealed himself when he brought everything out
of nothingness and gave it form in the light of its ultimate meaning
which is Christ. This creativity which makes our lives joyful
and fulfilling, despite the effort and the Cross, is really in
obedience to, and in function of a greater plan, the great plan
of God. Creativity is meant to serve this plan. The creativity
to which we are called is for the benefit of men and women who
live in our times. It serves a fascinating order, which is reality
as God made it. For this reason we must obey. If it is to be useful
there is always obedience involved in our work, e.g. obedience
to the circumstances or conditions of our work. What is useful
is to live the relationship between the present moment and the
overall project of which the moment forms a part. Moses spoke
to a people chosen by God for the good of the world.
Gratuitousness
"God chose you not because you were the most numerous of
all peoples... but because he loved you" Deut. 7,7. This
is the gratuitousness with which God has created you from nothing
and given you a name and surname. This is the gratuitousness with
which God has chosen you and placed you in circumstances where
you can express your fantasy, your intelligence, your heart and
your energy. We must allow our lives to be imbued with the awareness
of this gratuitousness, this grace, through which we exist and
can do things. For without this awareness, what we have said does
not hold: creativity becomes a lie, our joy becomes superficial,
the fruit of forgetfulness and denial. Our efforts become unbearable,
obedience turns into humiliation, and we do not love what we are
doing, it becomes heavy and does not serve its purpose. It is
the gratuitousness of God which we must imitate.
It is this gratuitousness which enables us to get up in the morning
and take up our task again with joy energy and goodwill. We can
do nothing without grace, we cannot even exist without grace.
Gratuitousness has the characteristic of going beyond what must
be done out of duty. If someone says "I have to do so much,
I have done it, that is it" (to say that means that not even
"so much" will be done well. If an impulse does not
go beyond the limit it sets, it will not even reach that limit)
something is missing in that person's action i.e. gratuitousness.
In what must this gratuitousness, this grace in which generosity
becomes love, consist? Love as we well know does not have limits.
There must therefore be in what we do something which goes beyond
the limit of what we do.
To Love Christ
We have already said that what we do is for something much greater
and which goes beyond us. But this is not all. The gratuitous
aspect of our actions, the grace of what we do is really a love.
And love is not just an attachment to a Greater Project. Love
is a "you", love is an other person. Love is a unique,
an ultimate You through whom all men live and move. Love is of
God, the living God who became man in Christ and worked with his
hands. To love therefore is to love Christ. If there was somebody
here who did not believe, who was not a Christian, I would still
use the phrase "love Christ"! Because then your work,
whatever type it is, will really be creative, will be happier,
more useful, more aware in sacrifice, more capable of resistance,
of perseverance. It will help your soul and enable you to do things
you would not otherwise have known how to do. We must participate
in the gratuitousness with which God called us by name and the
supreme gratuitousness with which he came among us as a companion
for our lives. We participate in this gratuitousness of God through
gratuitousness with which we get up in the morning, we look at
things, we take on the risks of daily life, we love. We get up
in the morning for love; that is for love of Christ in all the
things we will do.
"You 0 Christ, will make me capable of opening my arms to
embrace all men. Moment by moment, I offer you my work during
the day, 0 Christ for the whole world, just as you offered your
life for the whole world".
My wish for you is that you learn this love so that you may be
happy.
Ireland
