Sterile Work — Divine Physics
A reflection of a Catholic Worker.
Value of Work
Now, given the framework of divine physics in our previous article. I want to address the everlasting effect of actions. Hope will pass, faith will be 100% unnecessary, love is what remains. Love pays off debts. It covers sins. This is the fact the Gospel told us about the situation of the end time. I want to distinguish the three measures we abide by.
First, the effect of everlasting love from the Trinity.
The intensity of the love of God that will implant within us after death, and the resurrection. I am quite clueless about this, but I hope that our God will let everyone enjoy His Trinitarian love indiscriminately regardless of one’s past actions as long as we are with Him in heaven. But again, His judgment is just, and we do not know the detail.
Secondly, the effect of the everlasting crown.
Whether or not this actually is the first effect, I leave it to the Church and God to reveal it if He wishes. Still, I want to distinguish that your glory will solely rely on the obedience of God’s will in your life in following Jesus, or the Torah implanted in one’s heart for the exempted. True love in the measure of faith and morals will be counted into this throne.
Thirdly, the effect of your worldly contribution, what I call sterile space.
Things that truly have no everlasting effect and are useless in the eyes of eternity, such as our work, estate, our status, our power, our money, our system, our government, our worldly knowledge, and wisdom. Once dead, we leave everything behind and have zero effect whatsoever on our throne. Yet, one asked, do we need to work? I want to invite you to look at Aquinas’ definition of work, which is totally against most definitions in our world, but I will not discuss it here. From there, there are a few very important points we can draw.
Sustaining life. One cannot continue living as God wills it without food, and there is a need for effort to continue living. Therefore, those who do not provide basic needs of life should cultivate others' lives in the amount valued as equal to the basic provider. Now, when it comes to offering values, it does not really matter whether your give-and-take is spiritual or material since a man can’t live without God either, more fundamentally than earthly food. So, those who keep spreading love building the second effect above actually worth immensely more than any earthly things.
Yet, I learned from Jesus, St. Paul, and St. Francis, as their works go beyond comprehensible values, yet sinful man can’t measure heavenly value. Therefore Jesus asked the disciple to look for fish with a coin in its mouth to pay off the earthly service he received though he should have received it free.
We are called not to be a burden of others though it is their inability to see the value.
This way, paying, sharing, or helping becomes an act of love that counts to the second effect. Yet, the actions of an inn owner who asked for payment from Jesus was neither sinful nor had enough information to call it has any second effect, so for the sake of just an example, we can call his action sterile.
Now, about sterile, one shallow definition of it could be anything that doesn’t generate everlasting impact in a soul in the form of the second and first effects. Any effect that stays in the third effect is completely sterile and becomes the only required additional commandment by the Lord to do His commandment to love, which is to sustain life, not for the everlasting glory, but loses all potential glories simply because being ignored. However, we need to perceive our body to be the same body to come in the resurrection; therefore, by any means, not to endorse any attempt to lower the value of the human body. This section presents the order of significance that is inseparable; otherwise, it may become a heresy.
Material currency
Now that we’ve discussed sterile work. As humans, we have progressed so much as a society. We learned from barter and economic currency as a means of exchange that describes the value that gives the 3rd effect only, the sterile one. It is important that money be established for exchange within this 3rd effect, therefore should not be used for the 2nd effect, even worse, the 1st effect.
Those who use this exchange currency for the 2nd effect would violate God’s commandment to love others, for a commandment should not come with wage. For those using this same currency for the 1st effect is clearly sinful, for we ask for payment in exchange for the love that comes freely from the Creator directly.
Therefore, it is sinful to charge for a Eucharist or any direct encounter with God. Concerning the 2nd effect, it is wrong also to pay for someone to show mercy to you.
For our payment has been made, and no glory will be stored for us in heaven as Jesus pointed out how to fast and pray in secret.
In the case of the wealthy and those with financial power, it is proper to ask them to share back their wealth upon any services delivered for the 1st & 2nd effects above, but it must be called “donation”.
Social System
Now that we have a principle of material currency for the 3rd world. We need to look at the order of society. In extreme socialism, as done by Nazis, we found that the leaders would have to provide each individual's function. A violation of Christian ethics in using the currency above would be the leader's sin. In the extreme capitalist system, anything in life is measured totally in monetary value, therefore violating the same principle.
Yet in free economic society such as western capitalism, we learned to distinguish these three ranks quite well as a Church, but could not escape from the co-dependency among citizens that results in expensive requirements for those who are called to deliver the 2nd and 1st effects more than the 3rd effect. This becomes an integral issue within a developed country where a religious community or a church is expensive. People could not afford to show love due to the financial burden they have. They cannot share God as a community easily.
This forced religious communities to move away from the 1st effect and focus more on the 2nd and 3rd effects. Again, as Jesus said, let’s not be a burden.
This situation force a conflict of interest in the beautiful hope of the religious community Aquinas wrote: one who focuses can do more than those who do many, therefore living with religious focus is now limiting the mystical experience of the society. It is also a good opportunity to rediscover true devotion in such communities. Perhaps those living in divine providence have slacked off and generate not mystical communion in the first place.
There are two conflicting enterprise systems in this situation. A non-profit that focuses on the 2nd effect can no longer stay in operation and convert itself more toward a social enterprise model. This creates chaos, especially in many countries' tax systems, where it is extremely complicated to love others because of the imperfect law rules. Many face such difficulties and shift over to run a nonprofit purpose by using a free market for-profit organization while still maintaining the non-profit rule.
Now that we understand that the co-dependency in some society is what makes many go after for-profit, I would argue, this is the source of conflict and confusion by many who start thinking of a for-profit company or high-paying non-profits for ministries. Many of them come from the private sector that cares only about the 3rd effect without discerning the 1st and 2nd effects. This led to scandals within the church, a priest in western America was suspended from his duty due to this very reason.
Law in the Free Market
In the free-market system, many things possible. But for this very reason, we are violating currency ethics above, human ethics, and spiritual ethics in many ways. A free system is a lawless system or one with a minimal rule. It should not be seen as a platform for the free. Since a lawless system creates crime and chaos, there needs to be contemplation and discernment within the business and non-profit communities to abide by the Church's suggestions to keep refining ourselves for a better future.
The common confusion for those who focus on the 1st and 2nd comes from the mass of wealth that comes from them. There are two basic solutions.
First, split your wealth and immediately give back when exceeding the co-dependent debt created by society upon you.
Second, focus on the 3rd effect as the service while operating entirely for 1st & 2nd effects.
We recommend both solutions for our Catholicer members. We are inviting Catholics to build a social enterprise that delivers only the 3rd effect but focuses on evangelization in its operation. It works very well. The only remaining issue lies in the misunderstanding among Church members, but no longer in ethics or holiness. Think of it as a noodle stall that loves and evangelizes their employees but gives the best noodle to society in the name of Christ.
Spiritually Sterile
Now that we have looked at results as a measure of being sterile, I want to jump into the state of things to broaden the measure. God, who is in His creations, has a reason to expect His likeness to permeate Him. A fig tree who did not accommodate Jesus’ mission to deliver 1st and 2nd effects was cursed and stays in Israel up to this day fruitless.
Those who focus on the 2nd effect but cannot deliver the 1st effect are making progress without God, therefore spiritually sterile.
It lacks breathing space, as described in Caritas in Veritate.
It delivers merely information or love that does not transcend in itself. It has no power; it does not bring Jesus, it is a habitual activity, it is worldly good but Godless in itself. Though the 2nd effect is still delivered and follow the 1st and 2nd commandment, it requires time before God enters a soul to act freely.
This is when prayers, divinization, contemplation, sacrament, and essentials do not show any efficacy. Either because it is separated from the action itself, or it is insufficient in the volume. Jesus said, without Him, we can do nothing, yet some think they must reject the Church when asked not to continue our mission (of course, for a reason). This creates a negative 1st effect, which maintains the second effect, yet God's judgment includes all the three effects as a whole in the right order. Therefore, it is sinful and hurts God to violate the greatest commandment to follow the 2nd greatest commandment.
Disclaimer — Catholicer is a lay movement within the Catholic Church. This reflection is not meant to represent the Roman Catholic Doctrine, Theology, or Teaching. Catholicer promises unconditional obedience to the Roman Pontiff and his successors. Languages found in our articles might not be accurate both in the philosophical arena and even in English. We expect potential doctrinal errors in this article, therefore, should be used for a potential approach to Jesus, but not holding onto any information here as final Truth. We are not affiliated to any non-Catholic organizations or try to propose a non-Catholic view, if such occurrence is visible, it is due to our own reflection. We will change our articles without notices if we think it contains non-negligible errors.