God Sees

     “In His hidden life, Jesus wished to descend to the most common things of human existence, to the daily life of a manual worker who supports a family. And so we see Him during almost the whole of His life working day after day, caring for His tools in the small workshop, dealing simply and in a friendly way with the neighbors who came to ask Him to make a table for them or a rafter for a new house, caring for His Mother with great affection. This is how He fulfilled the will of His Father God during those thirty years. When we look at His life, we learn to sanctify our own work, our family, our friendships. Everything that is truly human can be holy, can be a channel for our love of God, because our Lord on assuming our human nature, sanctified it.” Frances Fernandez



     In the day to day living out of our lives, being a Christian makes the way we live our lives radically different from unbelievers. It gives our lives and actions, purpose and value. By fulfilling the duties of our vocation, we grow in grace and holiness. When we offer our day to God, it becomes our gift to Him. It gives us Someone to keep our focus on, as we move throughout our day.


     Doing our tasks out of love for our parents, children, extended family and friends, can only go so far. We grow tired and weary from the mundane tasks set before us. We need to know that what we do does matter to God, even if it goes unnoticed or unappreciated by others. God sees! We need to remember that fact and allow it to lift us when we don’t feel like pressing on to the next duty that awaits us.

     For thirty years, Christ lived His life quite unnoticed and was probably not seen as anyone extraordinary. He lived a simple, humble life as a carpenter in an obscure little village. Jesus found His fulfillment in doing whatever it was that His Father had called Him to do. “My food is to do the will of the one who sent Me and to finish His work” (Jn 4 vs 34).

     Jesus gave glory to His Father in each phase of His life: His infancy and childhood – doing and learning the things that babies and children do; adolescent years – being obedient to His parents, doing chores, learning a trade; adult years – practicing His trade as a carpenter, helping His parents, beginning His public ministry.

     No one part of Christ’s life was more important than the other. Each was built upon the other. Jesus was always looking to God the Father, to discern His will and follow it. In living this way, because Jesus was God, He sanctified all of life for us. He made it possible for us to turn the ordinary actions of life, into a supernatural gift to God – giving each action meaning – regardless of the outcome!

     “Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others, knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance” (Col 3 vs 23-24a).

     If we are able to keep our focus on God and do all for love of Him, it will impact the attitude with which we do things. We will move from the attitude of “doing it grudgingly because I have to,” to a place of acceptance, even though I may not feel like it, and finally to a place of total trust and abandonment to whatever God calls me to do. The latter is the way in which Our Lord and Our Lady lived their lives.

     Getting to this place of total trust and abandonment to God’s will in our lives does not happen overnight. It is usually a long and tedious process of success and failure. But our God is a patient, loving and faithful Father, and will never abandon us. He will continue to pour down the necessary graces upon us to overcome ourselves. Our job is to be open to them and allow the grace to change our hearts and minds.

     Live no more like the pagans, unaware of God and His great love for you. Embrace your identity as His son or daughter. Run to Him. Cling to Him. Open your heart to His unconditional love and grace. Let Christ’s life to change the way you live. Allow all that you do to become a channel of holiness by offering it to God with love. Waste no action! Let it become your path to wholeness, holiness and peace!

     “Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10 vs 31).

     “Beg God, therefore, to lead you on the way to heaven by the path He traced out for you. Ask Him to help you embrace the perfection of your state because He is the one who brought you into it and who consequently desired and still desires that you find in it the way and the means of sanctifying yourselves” (St. John Baptist De La Salle).