"A man or a woman, who simply sucks the world into his or her own self, shrivels the soul, no matter how much of the world it swallows. It is when the self is poured out that it grows. Our deepest identities are found in our call to service. We serve the Lord by serving others, and, in doing so, we find ourselves. We become ourselves, the selves we were meant to be, when we serve."

This is the full text of the speech of Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan president Fr Roberto "Bobby" C Yap SJ during the 24th University Service Awards, held on February 1, 2017 at the University Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Photo by Rico Magallona.  

My dear co-workers at Xavier, good afternoon. At our University Service Awards today, kindly allow me to offer some reflections on the meaning of work in general and of our work in particular here at XU.

I don’t always agree with Sigmund Freud. But there is a saying of Freud that I have always treasured. Someone asked the founder of modern psychology, "What is the formula for happiness?" So here is this great man known for working with people and trying to get them out of their anxiety and depression and Freud himself responded in his laconic German, liebe und arbeit, love and work.

What is the key to happiness? Healthy relationships and satisfying work … liebe und arbeit. Not bad. And I must say in my years of counseling people and in the confessional, I will often come back to that little line from Freud, liebe und arbeit. When people kind of have lost their way and that they feel they are drifting or sad; I’ll usually say, “Well, what is the quality of your liebe and your arbeit? What is the quality of your relationships? And are you finding your work satisfying?”

My dear friends, one of the many accomplishments of St John Paul II was the development of a Theology of Work. Reflecting on John Paul’s teaching could be fruitful as we strive to appreciate more deeply the Service Awards we are celebrating this afternoon.

The great Pope noted that too often we tend to relegate work to the purely secular realm. Or even at the limit, to see work just as a punishment for sin. So my work … has nothing to do with my relationship with God, does it? It’s just something I do to make a living or put food on the table. Or work is just this drudgery that I have been assigned. But keep in mind, John Paul insisted, that Adam is given work to do before the fall. That is to say, when he was still living in right relationship with God. Remember, Adam is invited “to till the soil of the garden [Gen 2:15].”

So we should not see work as just drudgery we have been assigned because of sin. No, work is something God gave us to do from the beginning. Now to be sure, after the fall, work becomes more burdensome. But then again, so does everything else, right? Everything else, our relationships, our play; everything else becomes more burdensome after the fall. But in itself, work is from God. And is ingredient in God’s purpose for us.

So much of John Paul’s Theology of Work comes from the first chapters of the Book of Genesis. We human beings are uniquely made in God’s image and likeness and this comes through, yes, even in our work.

During our Service Awards, let us meditate on work, especially the ordinary work that we do. You may say, oh, you know, it’s not very religious; it’s not very sacred. No, no … don’t worry about that. Think of the ordinary work you do. In some ways, the more ordinary, the better. Preparing lesson plans, checking papers, giving lectures, facilitating group discussions, supervising lab experiments, record-keeping, counseling, advising, repairing desks, preparing reports, ordering supplies, and so on.

Here is what John Paul wants us to see. When we do authentic work, of whatever kind, however simple, we are participating in God’s ongoing creation and providence. If there is one thing to remember from my talk, this is it everybody. When you do authentic work of any kind, you are participating in God’s ongoing creation and providence.

Through our work (again, think of Adam tilling the soil), we have dominion over the earth. And I know how misunderstood this has been. It doesn’t have a thing to do with domination, with human beings lording it over and taking advantage of creation. No, no. Dominion here in the bible means something like stewardship and up-building. So all of our work is a way of caring for creation, building it up, participating in God’s own purposes.

I love this in John Paul, who as many have pointed out is one of the only Popes, at least in recent years, who did in his lifetime hard physical labor. During those years when he was a college student during the Nazi occupation when he worked in the quarry and in the chemical factory in Poland. Karol Wojtla did hard physical labor. But he also referred to his writing desk. And he was one of the great writers of the 20th century. He referred to his writing desk as his intellectual workbench. So we can think of our computers, our laptops, our tablets, our white boards, our black boards, our writing desks, our classrooms as our intellectual workbench, building up God’s creation, participating in God’s purposes.

Moreover, John Paul says, through work we realize our implicit powers. We awaken to our full potential, intellectually and physically. It’s an important point, isn’t it? Because notice how lethargic one becomes in the absence of satisfying work. You know, nothing is challenging you, nothing is calling forth your response. Nothing is stirring into life, your energies.

John Paul is far more interested in the subject of work, than in the object of work. It’s not so much the thing produced that matters. It’s the dignity of the one who produces. Work affirms that dignity.

Pope Francis also emphasizes this beautiful truth. In Laudato Si’, Jorge Mario Bergolio teaches: “We need to remember that men and women have ‘the capacity to improve their lot, to further their moral growth and to develop their spiritual endowments.’ Work should be the setting for this rich personal growth, where many aspects of life enter into play: creativity, planning for the future, developing our talents, living out our values, relating to others, giving glory to God [LS 127].” “Work is a necessity, part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfillment [LS 128].”

More to it, St John Paul says work is inevitably a social activity, for a couple of reasons. One is that it usually draws us together with other workers in a common enterprise. Xavier University would not function if not for this network of many co-workers, a lot of collaborators, and numerous partners in this educational mission. Second, work draws us into a social stance. Authentic work is always social; it is always for others. Authentic work is always for service.

As I was preparing this talk, I remembered my professor in moral philosophy, Dr Ramon Castillo Reyes, or Doc Reyes as we fondly called him. His “why sell soap” story was classic. According to him, upon graduation, he was set to work for one of the big soap companies as a salesman when a Jesuit priest challenged him to be more. So overnight, he changed his mind and instead of selling soap, Doc Reyes ended up in a small town in Northern Luzon to become a teacher.

I remembered the “why sell soap” story when I too decided to become a high school teacher thirty-seven years ago. And to this day, when a young person comes to me for guidance on what she or he could do in life, I share that story. There is nothing wrong in selling soap but, if one’s life is just about selling soap (or anything else for that matter) and making money, that’s something else. The point of the story is that to be happy, one must live and work for something greater than oneself, and one must serve others.

A man or a woman, who simply sucks the world into his or her own self, shrivels the soul, no matter how much of the world it swallows. It is when the self is poured out that it grows. Our deepest identities are found in our call to service. We serve the Lord by serving others, and, in doing so, we find ourselves. We become ourselves, the selves we were meant to be, when we serve. It is one way in which our souls mirror the utter fruitfulness of God: The more we pour out ourselves, the more we become our best selves.

This afternoon, we will honor especially our good friends who will soon retire: Lyrna Calida of the Office of the President, Epifania Chaves of the Grade School, Roman Ellovido of the Library, Rey Mante of the Graduate School, Floro Ngalot of the Physical Plant Office, Bernadette Tismo of the College of Arts and Sciences, Jose Valledor of the Center for Integrated Technologies, Virgie Yacapin of the School of Business and Management. We ask our retirees to please rise, so we can give them a round of applause. My dear retirees, thank you so much for your service to Xavier.

Day by day, year by year, our retirees have given themselves over to something greater than themselves, and that’s the deepest meaning of what it means to be human. We can’t be ourselves, be what God intended, without going out of ourselves in service to others.

My good Xavier friends, St John Paul II was very much at home in the classical Benedictine ideal of ora et labora. Prayer and work in a healthy rhythm. Work is not an addendum to Benedictine life, but it is essential to it. It is not so much that it is other than prayer but a complement to prayer, one leading naturally to the other. I think that is a good thing not just for Benedictine monks to think about but even for us, Ignatian partners in the Jesuit mission, the rhythm of prayer and work, the grace of finding-God-in-all-things.

My co-workers at XU, may we all see our daily labor, however humble, as part of God’s plan to bring us fully to life and fully to joy.

Maayong hapon ug daghang salamat kaninyo'ng tanan.∎