Consecration Aids: 20: Slave Wages!
Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
Slave Wages
N ot so long ago I received a letter from a newly-consecrated Slave of Mary. I’d like to quote you part of his letter to illustrate a point on work. ”Ever since I made my consecration, my work here at the shop has ceased to be drudgery. Somehow, Our Lady has made me see things in a new light, and what I used to do begrudgingly for the ’boss’ here, I now do with love (and with greater efficiency, I am told), for the Queen whose unworthy slave I am!”
Anyone reading such a letter, and not knowing what Holy Slavery to Jesus through Mary can do to a soul, might be prone to think my correspondent either deluded or unbalanced. I’m afraid that’s how I might have judged such a person myself … that is, before I enslaved myself to Mary Queen of All Hearts. Now I see things in a different light also.
Work in the Service of the King and Queen of Heaven
Please, don’t get me wrong. I don’t claim that Holy Slavery will make you like work for work’s sake: for example, that a man will naturally like to dig up potatoes for the same reason he likes to go fishing, because it’s a form of relaxation; or that someone will get as much fun out of scrubbing floors as they gets at a barn dance. What I do say, however – and at the top of my lungs – is that your work, no matter how difficult it may be, can become a thrilling experience in the service of the King and Queen of heaven and earth, provided of course you live your total Consecration.
There are several reasons for this. The first is: love. Come to think of it, it really isn’t so much the kind, or the amount of work that you have to do, as the amount of love you can put into it that renders a task easy or difficult. Take the unrelenting, self-sacrificing work of a young mother for her child. Surely, there can hardly be a more difficult and more tedious work. Yet what mother, worthy of the name, would dream of complaining about her work, of calling it boring? And the answer, of course, is: love.
Our Lord’s Work Commands are Through the Job’s Boss
Now the Slave of Jesus and Mary has given himself entirely to the service of this King and Queen. Since he cannot serve two masters – God and mammon – he has pledged his allegiance to Christ through Mary. All the other ”bosses” are, therefore, sub- ordinated to Christ; their orders – all sin and injustice barred – are as so many orders from ”The Big Boss,” Christ, Our Lord. Viewed in this light, work becomes a thing of love; every command – no matter whence the human source – an indication of the will of Christ through Mary.
Author: Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
This is the Twentieth in a series of articles covering Consecration Aids.
Why not offer your work in the spirit of Holy Slavery to Jesus through Mary?
Slavery is Voluntary
Another thing the Slave must remember is that, since he has chosen voluntary slavery for his lot, he has no kick coming when the human boss grunts and snorts, or when the brunt of the work is placed on his shoulders – provided, again, that no injustice is being done to him or to his fellow workers. After all, a slave must work! It is true that the voluntary slavery he chose was a spiritual slavery to the King of kings. But if that King wants him to earn his livelihood here below by working for earthly ”bosses” who is he to gainsay his Master? Besides, the true slave of Jesus and Mary knows that everything – yes, I said everything – that happens to him in God’s service is either willed by God or, at least, permitted by Him for our own good and His greater glory! And what slave could ask for more than God’s greater glory?
Another important element that enters into consideration when we deal with labor is the pay, the reward. Did you ever hear a man who was well paid for his work say that he didn’t like his job? A good fat pay-check makes a man overcome many a hardship. I would say, it makes him like his work.
I suppose you’ll say: Slaves of Mary shouldn’t look at work in this light. They wouldn’t expect rewards for their work. They should even turn their backs on it.
Purifying Actions
I’ll admit that by his Consecration, the Slave of Mary has promised complete disinterestedness in any form of reward. (There would be no sense to his Holy Slavery otherwise.) Deep down in his heart, however, he knows that Mary is purifying everyone of his actions. He knows that she adorns them with her own merits and virtues; that his work and actions can take on Mary’s own sublime intentions and that God is, thereby, more perfectly honored, souls more readily helped and his own soul growing in God’s love.
True enough, he must not look for pay. Yet, what spiritual adding machine will ever calculate the treasures that accrue to a soul whose work is completely given over to Jesus and Mary? If, because of the sublimity of her intentions, each of Mary’s actions was of greater value than the most heroic acts of all the Saints put together, then who will attempt to measure the value of an action – yes, just any ordinary action – of a Slave of Mary?
Understand, now, what my correspondent meant when he wrote: “Work, here at the shop, has ceased to be drudgery ?” Want to add a little zest to your everyday work and a lot of merit, too ? Why not offer your work in the spirit of Holy Slavery to Jesus through Mary?
Vol. #009
July – August 2021
