Reflections for the Working Soul

Gospel: John 15: 26-27, 16, 12-15

“…the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.”

Search for truth

By Bishop Precioso D. Cantillas, SDB, DD

The human being, created by God in His image and likeness, has the power to think and discover what is true. In fact, the human person searches for what is true and once he “sees” the truth, he feels fulfillment. However, it is a common experience that there are instances when one seems to find the truth, but, only to realize that it is not. In fact, because of our need to know the truth, we sometimes accept as true things that are false or unauthentic. In everything, even in the things we do, little or big tasks, we need to know the truth of the matter, the meaning of things which our mind finds peace with.

An aspect of our work and working then is to search for the truth about our work—the meaning and value of what we do, why we do them, for what and/for whom do we do our work, and how should we do our jobs. The human worker is not like the machine that operates mechanically or even automatically; his mind and his spirit need to know the purpose and the meaning of his actions. It is the awareness and the understanding of the nature of things and activities that satisfy the human person’s inner needs. The material benefits of work would satisfy the basic needs of the human person, but the greater needs including that of the need for self-fulfillment is met only by the spiritual aspects of work. This is where the Spirit of Jesus comes in. As Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit will lead those who accept Him, to all truth, including that which give full meaning and value of every act/work of the human person. With the Spirit of Jesus, our daily work brings us joy, peace and happiness.

The Spirit in silence

By Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS

The good bishop writes above about finding the truth about one’s work.  One situation this might be very difficult is when one’s work consists of distorting the truth.  Truthfulness in one’s work or profession used to be a most desirable virtue, and its opposite, deception, not only was frowned upon but was also punished.  But now people are considered smart and successful when they make loads of money by capitalizing on cleverness in manufacturing “truths”—like get-rich-quick scams and fake news.  Although honest taxi drivers make it to the news sometimes, we hear more often about obviously corrupt officials in government agencies escaping prosecution due to “lack of evidence.”  When did things take a U-turn, so to speak?

I’d venture a guess and say people start straying further and further away from “all truth” when worldly preoccupations begin to obsess them.  The more absorbed we are by the needs of our mind and body, by our notions of “happiness” and “success”, the faster our God-given disposition to search for truth diminishes.  And the better we become at achieving our mundane goals, the poorer we get at discerning the truth of things.

Truth is like a pearl that lies in the bottom of the sea, where it’s all darkness and silence.  The higher up we go to the surface, the harder for us to find the pearl of truth, for our activities are like the waves and swirls in the shallow waters which won’t keep us still.  Therefore the way back to the truth—and the peace that comes with it—is by “swimming” deeper into the sea, by taking a respite from our shallow concerns and waiting for the guiding Spirit in silence.