The Most Important Work
One
The Work of the Lord
When God first sent Moses to liberate the Israelites from the Egyptians, it was so the people could serve the Lord on the mountain, could worship Him with a sacrifice and a feast (Exodus 3:12; 5:1-3). Worship was the ultimate goal of freedom.
The Hebrew word used for serving or working for the Lord is avaad. In Greek, it gets translated as leitourgia, or liturgy. That’s why the Mass, the liturgy, the sacrifice and the feast instituted by God is also called a service, the Divine Service.
Worshiping God is not just one of the things we do, it is the most important thing we do. All our prayer, all our time spent with the Lord, flows from and leads back to this fundamental truth: the greatest work of our lives is to worship God. The highest and most essential way we serve God is by giving Him the worship He is due.
At the heart of everything, this is our primary purpose, the central work of our lives: Actively participating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the supreme act of worship and cultivating a daily life of prayer.
Everything else in life finds its proper place only when worshiping God comes first. And yet, it’s hard to see things that way. Because there are so many other types of work, other kinds of service, that get in the way.
Two
Pharoah’s Response
When Moses came and asked Pharaoh to let the people go so they could worship God, the most important work, Pharaoh treated it as a distraction from the work he wanted the Israelites to do.
Listen to how he puts it: The king of Egypt answered them, ‘What do you mean, Moses and Aaron, by taking people away from their work? Off to your labor!... You would give them rest from their work… They are lazy; that is why they are crying, ‘Let us go to offer sacrifice to our God.’ (Exodus 5:4-8).
Notice Pharaoh’s attitude: he thinks of the worship of God as something that interrupts the people’s productivity, in this case, making bricks. He thinks that practical work is what really matters. And look, the truth is, we’re just like Pharaoh. Maybe we don’t actually say that getting other stuff done is more important than prayer or Mass, but we act that way, and we certainly think that way.
After all, we don’t think about prayer or Mass when we’re doing our work, but we sure think about our work when we’re praying or at Mass. In fact, we’re antsy as all get out to get back to our projects when we should be praying.
Why do we feel like practical work is more important than prayer and worship? And what can we do to stop feeling that way?
Three
Prayer is Harder
The truth is that prayer, worship, and service to God, these things are a lot harder than our professional and personal projects. Yes, our jobs may be mentally and physically challenging. But nothing is harder than focusing on God, nothing is harder than trying to keep our minds fixed on what can’t be seen, heard, and can’t be comprehended.
So yes, prayer and worship are more difficult than anything else. That’s why we run from it. That’s why we’d rather build bricks than pray. Bricks are simple. They’re tangible, and easy to understand. But even if worship and prayer are difficult, it’s infinitely more important.
It’s more important to reach out for the unseen God than for the straightforward things of the world. Better to grope blindly for the Lord of Heaven, than to cling tightly to the passing things of this earth. Yes, we can see them clearly, but we know they won’t last.
So make yourself free for the work that matters most.
Four
External vs. Internal Work
Another thing to notice is that our worldly work and our practical projects all involve trying to deal with something outside ourselves. A field or a home or a spreadsheet or a boardroom full of other people. All these have some kind of measurable results.
You can clean a house. You can harvest a field. You can convince the boardroom to sign off on your proposal. There’s a kind of tangible finality to worldly work that feels really nice. But when we pray, when we worship, then we have to confront ourselves, and all that needs to be done to fight our vices and develop our virtues, and nothing is more exhausting than the struggle to overcome vice with virtue. And you don’t feel the tangible results. There’s no way to objectively chart your spiritual progress, or numerically measure your growth in virtue. There is no metric to get ahold of.
That’s hard. But again, you can see why it’s the most important thing. Better to examine yourself, asking for the Spirit’s help and guidance to become better, than to do anything else. The imperfect effort to grow in holiness is more important than to competently try to perfect something else. And that’s the main work God asks of us.
Five
Brick-Building or Soul Building?
Moses wanted the people to serve God. Pharaoh wanted the people to serve him. Moses wanted the people to build up their souls. Pharaoh just wanted people to make bricks.
So what’s more important? Prayer and worship, or getting stuff done?
Serving worldly aims doesn’t have a very long shelf-life. Pharoah didn’t have long to live. But God is the eternal one. Worshipping God lasts forever. Bricks and the things they make will crumble. The pyramids have been disintegrating for a long time now, and one day they’ll be nothing but dust. But for trillions of years, for an infinity of years, after the pyramids are gone, our souls will still exist. And we will wish we had been more dedicated to building our souls with worship and prayer.
As St. Louis de Montfort wrote, we need to, “Believe that the greatest things that are done on this earth are wrought interiorly, and in the hearts of faithful souls.” And those greatest things are wrought interiorly by prayer.
Lent is a privileged time of worship and prayer. So, figure out how you can let your worldly projects stop distracting you from Sunday Mass, or daily Mass and daily meditation and a resolution, and get down to the main business, the main work, of your life – worship and prayer!
Suggested Resolutions:
Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.
Set aside your work phone completely for an hour every day to sit in silence and pray.
It can be difficult to avoid distractions in prayer, but try not to get too consumed by reflections on work while you’re praying or at Mass.