Chapter Two: The Anatomy of Confusion in Labour

Chapter Two: The Anatomy of Confusion in Labour

As I have dissected the sinews and veins of the human frame, finding therein the hidden order of the Creator, so must we dissect the confusion that afflicts the worker, lest he perish in darkness.

Confusion ariseth not from the labour itself (for work was given unto Adam before the Fall, that he might dress the garden), but from the disorder introduced by sin and its three daughters: ignorance, distraction, and loss of purpose.

1. Ignorance of the End
   Man laboureth without knowing why.
   St Thomas Aquinas (†1274) teacheth that every act must be ordered to its final end, which is God (Summa Theologiae I-II, q.1, a.8).
   When the worker seeth only the paycheck and not the glory of God or the common good, his toil becometh a wheel of Ixion, endless and fruitless.
2. Distraction of the Senses
   The eye wandereth after vanities (television, gossip, drink), the ear after flattery, the hand after idleness.
   St Gregory the Great (†604) warneth: “The mind that is too scattered cannot contemplate truth.”
   Thus the worker, though surrounded by tools, seeth them not; though commanded, he heareth not; though tasked, he performeth not.
3. Loss of Purpose
   The devil persuadeth man that labour is meaningless, that the world is chaos, and that nothing he buildeth shall endure.
   Yet Scripture proclaimeth the contrary: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10), for every honest work, even the sweeping of a floor, is a participation in the creative act of God.

The remedy is threefold, drawn from the Fathers and the sacred page:

• Order thy day as the monks ordered theirs: prayer, work, study, rest.
  St Benedict (†547) ordained eight hours of labour that the monk might “truly seek God.”
• Fix thine attention upon the task at hand, as the arrow upon the mark.
  St John Climacus (†649) saith: “Attention is the beginning of contemplation.”
• Offer each act to God, for “whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

He who thus laboureth walketh in light; he who laboureth without these three walketh in the shadow of death.

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