The better part

SO OFTEN HAVE I HEARD SHALLOW INTERPRETATIONS OF Jesus' words "… chose the better part…" that a careless reading of it could lead to a lopsided view of activity. In the workplace, it could make us satisfied with judging externals to the point of being deceived.

Criselda was an average bookkeeping clerk who did her job quietly and gave her supervisor no headaches, but it was her pious practices that earned for her the respect of her colleagues. She was pleasant and avoided idle company, often preferring to spend her noon break in church. She also immersed herself in symbols of devotion--a Sto. Nino statuette enshrined in her work station, stampitas and special prayer cards laid out neatly under her desk's glass top, etc. Indeed, a saint in the making, her coworkers thought. One day, Criselda just stopped coming to work. At first she called in sick, but after almost two weeks AWOL, her boss became suspicious. A tracer revealed that she had been manipulating the books and in fact had filched a total of 170,000 pesos from the office's bank account in the three years she worked in that office. Her case just shows how appearances could deceive.

No one can be all-prayer or all-work and remain sane; we are neither angels nor carabaos. We need to be balanced and to be that, Jesus shows us "the better part" as the way. First we feed our souls with the word of God, in order to be true in doing the work that feeds our bodies. Without genuine "soul food"--doing God's will--our work will seem a burden, and may even be the root of much evil for ourselves and others.