The Hidden Value of Work Unnoticed

From the moment each of our children could speak, the exercise of teaching them to say “please” and “thank you” became an integral part of our everyday life. It became as essential as training the kids to brush their teeth correctly and regularly, cleaning up after themselves and simply playing “nice”.

As important as it is to teach our children these basic things, the truth is that while they may learn to say these words and hopefully mean them, there are and will be others who will not say the same to them. It may be hurtful, puzzling, annoying or bothersome, but it is a part of the real world and something they will experience. More and more, I have realized the necessity of preparing them for the very real occurrence of others not saying the same things to them and the hidden blessing of unrecognized and uncredited work.

Back to Basics

If we can realize that everything is God’s gift, how happy will our hearts be! Everything is his gift. He is our strength! Saying “thank you” is such an easy thing, and yet so hard! How often do we say “thank you” to one another in our families? These are essential words for our life in common. “Sorry”, “excuse me”, “thank you”. If families can say these three things, they will be fine. “Sorry”, “excuse me”, “thank you”.(Homily of Holy Father Francis on the occasion of the year of faith, 13 October 2013)

Nearly nine years ago, Pope Francis spoke these words, a reminder, and a callback to what many of us learned from our very earliest years of existence. Basic and fundamental – these three words are rooted in loving humility and grateful hearts. So basic and simple – yet taken for granted in today’s world, which seems to run helter-skelter on an undercurrent of overpowering and palpable self-entitlement. Social media has become a shameless platform for self-promotion and self-aggrandization. Self, self, self. Me, myself, and I. Many live their lives by adhering to a two-word motto: “Me first.” There is no time for or interest in gratitude to an unseen God. Who cares?

Beyond Those Fifteen Minutes of Fame (or Infamy)

What the eye cannot see is often ignored. For the self-important and overinflated ego, the hidden and the unseen hold no appeal and deserve no time or attention. However, most of our lives are in fact lived in the realm of the ordinary: no fanfare, bells or whistles, no rewards, praise or accolades. For many of us, our daily lives go unnoticed by others. They are the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months – the years of patient work, tireless effort, perseverance in the face of misunderstanding or mistakes, routines gone tired, and maybe the temptation of wanting to be noticed and recognized.

These moments of ordinary time, work, and life, in general, are the building blocks for our lives as a whole. The back story of anyone’s fifteen minutes of fame (or infamy) may seem moot to others, but often the journey to get to that brief moment of recognition is ever so much longer and more significant than the act of being noticed.

The Hidden Life of Jesus

God the Father’s only begotten Son spent 30 of His 33 earthly years in relative anonymity. In Nazareth, perhaps in a home as unremarkable and ordinary as any other family’s at that time, this Holy Family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus lived their lives day by day. Time passed by without fanfare, but with the ordinary moments, words and affections of everyday life. They ate and slept, worked and rested, prayed and talked together. We know they must have had moments of laughter and good humour, for Jesus’ attractive persona is impossible if not for having had a joyful family life. The hidden life of Jesus – as an infant and a child, a teenager and young man, as a Son – is precious and sacred for the fact that He was (is!) both God and man. It absolutely made all the difference in the world!

As with other events in his life, we should never contemplate Jesus’ hidden years without feeling moved. We should realize that they are in themselves a call to shake off our selfishness and easy-going ways. Our Lord knows our limitations, our individualism and our ambition. He knows it is difficult for us to forget ourselves and give ourselves to others. He knows very well what it feels like not to find love and to discover that those who say they follow him only do so in a half-hearted way. (Saint Josemaria Escriva, “Christ is passing by” – “Christ triumphs through humility”, Number 15)

The Value of Unseen Work

All of this to say – there is dignity and great value in human work, whether it is witnessed by or known to others or not. The attentive ministrations of a nurse for a patient undergoing dialysis, the efficient delivery of hundreds of packages by a courier driver, the patient assistance of a cashier scanning each customer’s purchases, the countless daily chores of a tired mom or dad – these and many others often pass unnoticed, yet the significance of their work can be seen in the care which those around them receive.

This is true even if those they care for do not realize or recognize this. More importantly, even if nobody else saw or knew about a person’s work, there is One Whose attention never wavers or falters: He sees all things and knows all things. Our work may not have been seen by others, but it is always known to our Father God.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”(Col. 3:1-4, RSVCE)

 The Highest Purpose

“Please”, “thank you” and “sorry” are important words in basic human relations. They indicate and convey respect, gratitude, and recognition of the other’s personal dignity. It is good for us to teach our children to make these words a necessary part of their vocabulary, not because they are “nice” or that we say so, but because each person deserves to be respected and treated with dignity.

Nevertheless, the truth is that there will be many times and many things for which we are not and will not be recognized. We will not be thanked or praised. We will pass unnoticed and our work overlooked. Although human respect and ambition may drive us to want to be honoured and lauded by others, it is for love and His greater glory for which God wills all our work and our very lives. With God as our highest purpose in life, we are able to love those around us, whether what we do is seen or not. When we do our best and offer up our work, what we do is transformed into the work of God Himself.

“You and I belong to Christ’s family, for ‘he himself has chosen us before the foundation of the world, to be saints, to be blameless in his sight, for love of him, having predestined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his Will’. We have been chosen gratuitously by Our Lord. His choice of us sets us a clear goal. Our goal is personal sanctity, as St Paul insistently reminds us, haec est voluntas Dei: sanctificatio vestra, ‘this is the Will of God: your sanctification’. Let us not forget, then, that we are in our Master’s sheepfold in order to achieve that goal.”

(Saint Josemaria Escriva, “Friends of God” – “The Richness of Ordinary Life”, Number 2)