The Covid shutdowns devastated our economy and laid off millions of people. However, even now that business is once again booming, companies are struggling to find people who want to work. There are many reasons for the shortage of workers, but without turning this into an economic blog, let’s look at a more important shortage: the shortage of people willing to work to build up the kingdom of God.
Hopefully, we all have the goal of getting to Heaven. If we do have that goal, wouldn’t we want to bring as many people to Heaven with us as well? I’m sure that one day we will understand why some people chose another path and ended up in Hell, but we don’t want to see anyone end up in a bad place. We especially wouldn’t want to see family, friends, and loved ones in Hell. Saving souls requires hard work and it’s impossible to do sitting on the sidelines.
It’s often hard to figure out what we should do to help build up the kingdom of Heaven. The most important thing we need to do is have a strong foundation and be grounded in our faith. We don’t have to be a religious scholar or theologian to be grounded in our faith. However, we should be in a state of grace which involves going to church at least for the Sunday liturgy and on holy days of obligation, remaining free from serious sins, and going to the sacrament of reconciliation when we fall. If we aren’t in a state of grace, we lose our spiritual protection and open ourselves up to be attacked by the devil when we attempt to do good. We are also better able to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit when we are in a state of grace. We need to know the basics of our faith and have a good relationship with God to start doing good work.
Once we have a strong foundation, we can then discern what gifts we have that will best help us do God’s work. We should be able to know ourselves well enough to know what we are good at. We might have the gift of patience and when other people see how patient we are, they can see a little bit of God in us. We want to make God as visible as possible to the world through us and our good works. Just as we all have different jobs in the economic world, we all aren’t going to have the same job in building up the kingdom. Small jobs may seem insignificant, but every job has its own importance. Disney World wouldn’t thrive if the people tasked with picking up the trash around the park didn’t do their job. A CEO might lose a big deal if the paperwork for the deal wasn’t well organized by the secretary. It’s not the job that we do that matters, it’s the effort that we put in to contribute to lifting up others that’s important.
There is a tendency to think that someone who worked longer than others deserves more. In the economic world this is true, but in the kingdom of Heaven, just getting there is our reward. It wouldn’t be fair to not let in someone who had a last minute change of heart. Some of the greatest saints have also been some of the greatest sinners at some point in their life. We don’t know what other people have been through so we shouldn’t pass judgement on others. We definitely shouldn’t be jealous of someone who gets to Heaven. We should rejoice when a soul makes it there.
In order for an organization to thrive, it needs workers willing to put in the effort to make it better. The more people there are to help, the more the organization can accomplish. Let’s not only be workers for the kingdom of God, but use our talents, treasure, and good examples to encourage others to join the Heavenly workforce as well.
