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| Sacred Heart Chapel, Franciscan University of Steubenville |
"So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor." -1 Corinthians 3:7-8
When you or I work, we share in the mission of God. For it is by the hands of humans that God's will is often accomplished on Earth. Though we are not the one to whom the glory belongs, and we are ultimately unable to bring about true meaning and divine purpose to our work, God still desires to give us the graces for our work to be fruitful for His kingdom on Earth.
It is with great zeal that we should go about our daily works. The Lord has appointed you for a position of working in the world so that a heavenly reality can be manifested through it. God desires for us to spend eternity with Him in Heaven, and that must start now, on Earth, for souls to come to know and love Him.
This is a mission greater than ourselves. We, small as we are, cannot be glorified in this world by the all the work we could possibly do-- of what merit is it to work and die in this world? However, God has called us to be part of his eternal mission, one where He will be glorified by our salvation and resurrection. He called us to bear fruit that will last-- placing our treasure where moth and rust do not corrupt, in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-21)-- that we may abide in His love forever.
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing... By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." -John 15:4-6, 9-11
How did Jesus bear this fruit on Earth? This is a good question to ask. Jesus is not only the source of fruit in our works, but the example of how this work must be lived out. He gave a perfect model of what it means to live a life that glorifies God completely in work. What does it mean to humbly do the will of God for you, to bear fruit that will last?
"But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water." -John 19:34
In the blood of Christ do we find our answer. In a life completely offered to God, in a work of complete gift to the Father, do we find the fruit of blood and water gushed out upon the whole world, as a fount of mercy for us.
We have been called to communion with God, to eternal relationship with Him. In our sin of rejecting and abandoning God, it is only God's mercy that can return us to Him. So, the gift of the fruit of the Sacred Heart of Jesus becomes a work greater than the action of one man's death-- it becomes a source of mercy for all, for our total salvation.
Can we, too, in consecrating ourselves to the work of God in His son, Jesus Christ, bring about this same fruit of mercy for the world?
Yes, when we share in the blood of Christ! When we are filled with the same life of Jesus by sharing in His same blood, it follows that every drop that our suffering and work squeezes out of us would be the same fruit poured out by Christ in His passion. In receiving and being transformed by the blood of Christ, we are transformed to die with Him in shedding His blood, and live with Him in living by His blood. Every fruit of our daily lives, every fruit of our daily deaths, becomes His fruit of Divine Mercy shed for the world, and we become His vessels to bring this fruit to all, that all may be washed clean in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14).
Let us turn to Our Lady, the Mother of God. She bore Jesus in Her womb for nine months, and during that time She gave of Her own heart, Her own blood, to supply Our Lord. He abided in Her, receiving Her blood; Her blood became His blood, and so She abided in God. This became the reality throughout the rest of Her life: Mary gave of Her life in every moment without fear, pouring out Her work and Her heart to God... in doing so, not only did She live in the divine life given by Christ, but She brought the Divine Mercy of Christ to many in the blood of Her own heart, pierced by a sword that many hearts may be brought to the merciful truth of God.
Our Lady, Mother of Divine Mercy, shows us what it means to give of one's entire life for God. She is a witness of the abundant wellspring of divine life that God gives to those who love Him. Every single moment of Her life and work was given to this hope of infinite mercy that Jesus wishes to give us. Now, She and many hearts have been blessed by this simple action on Her part to present Herself wholeheartedly to the work of God.
Similarly, your sharing in the divine life of God begins with a simple step. Consecrate all of your work and life to Him, no matter how mundane or atypical the moments may be. Trustingly pray for strength as you join in Jesus' passion, the shedding of His own blood. Do so constantly and daily... repeatedly, when you take your life back into your own hands. When you obediently sow in the seed-ground of the Holy Spirit, it is there that, by His grace alone, you will reap his fruit, watered by His blood, and tended by Our Lady's hands.
"May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him." -Psalm 126:5-6
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