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The Devil’s Bargain: No Work in Hell
I don’t work. Oh, well, I mean I work, just not for money. I’m a stay-at-home mom with a hard-working husband, two medically challenged daughters, and two dogs. I tend a garden and try to make a pleasant home and take care of friends in need. In fact, I work pretty dang hard and rarely have a day off from my “work.”
But, one of the bennies of being a stay-at-home mom is being in charge of my own schedule (except when the kids’ schedules make demands on me). I try to make time to practice my faith and, of course, I read a considerable amount on-line. Sometimes those things come together in unexpected ways.
For example, today we Catholics commemorate Saint Gregory the Great. I was reading about him in the Magnificat magazine (mini-liturgy of the hours):
One of three popes to be called “the Great” Gregory was born as barbarian tribes assaulted Rome – the bloody beginning of the Middle Ages. After a distinguished career in civil service, Gregory renounced all and entered a monastery. He was elected pope in 590. Gregory’s levelheaded yet profoundly prayerful approach maintained the peace and won souls for Christ from among the invading tribes. Through The Dialogues, accounts of the heroism of the saints, and his many letters, he guided and formed his flock. “Study, I beg you, and each day meditate on the words of your Creator,” he wrote. “Learn the heart of God in the words of God, so that you long more ardently for eternity.” Gregory died in 604.
Okay, sounds like the kind of guy we need right now. Saint Gregory the Great, pray for us!
But, then I read today’s meditation authored by him (excerpt):
“Since the hours and their moments are running away, see to it, dearly beloved, that they are filled with what will earn the wages of good work. Listen to what Solomon in his wisdom says: Do vigorously everything your hand can do, because there will be no work or plan or wisdom or knowledge in the lower world, to which you are hurrying. Since we do not know the time of our coming death, and we cannot work after death, it remains for us to seize the time granted us before death.”
What’s this? There is no work in hell – “the lower world to which you are hurrying,” according to Solomon? This is a new thought for me. I mean, I kind of imagined heaven as a permanent vacay from work and troubles, but hell?
Turns out I had read an excerpt from Dinesh D’Souza’s book (Death of a Nation) at American Greatness yesterday, LBJ’s Democratic Plantation (Warning: many uses of the n-word; he is writing about LBJ after all). And, boom, everything came together.
Of course there’s no work in hell! Just look at the hell created for black Americans when they swapped one plantation for another! No work. No education to speak of. No opportunities for entrepreneurship. No more intact families to be responsible for. Nothing to encourage character development. LBJ and his racist, segregationist Democrat friends took it all in exchange for the “black vote.” It’s a cautionary tale.
Freedom is a scary thing. Most people would rather be “taken care of.” That’s evident in Americans’ growing preference for socialism – whereby you’re guaranteed “free stuff,” even if it means taking the fruits of someone else’s labor to pay for it. Also known as “slavery.”
Democrats and their plantation politics are a devil’s bargain. All we’ll ever see from it is slavery and hell.
Published in General
Loved your post, Mrs. Chauvinist. You always have interesting things to say.
I’ve always loved the translation of John 9:4 that goes like this: “Work while there is day, for the night cometh when no man can work.”
That’s not the most common translation, but it’s one that has stayed with me all these years.
John 9:4 must be the verse behind Pope Gregory’s meditation.
Great post. I think the above becomes true only when the joy and exhilaration of achievements through one’s efforts is denied by never having had that opportunity. The Democrats, and their Socialists cohorts, have had some success with this denial.
Pope Gregory made reference to Ecclesiastes 9:10 which in the Douay Rheims version reads:
The King James reads:
Whatever version one reads, the encouragement is to work with all physical and mental energy while we are in this life because this is best for us as long as we maintain the right motives, relationships, and rest. Idleness is destructive.
I’ve long pondered on the fact that work appears to be part of God’s Creation before The Fall. I read Genesis 1:26-30 as instructions that Adam and Eve were to take care of the world on which they had been placed. Work as drudgery seems to be a consequence of The Fall.
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”
This post reminded me there are lots of passages about work in the Bible for many reasons, to be independent and not a slave as you said, to have food, provide for your family, but it also reminded me of the current church crisis – to work like crazy while there is still daylight for souls (to strengthen what remains), to do what we can while on earth because this world will be destroyed – it’s on the path of destruction, and time is short.
I’m amused by that saying, “Everyone look busy. Jesus is coming!” But, like all humor, it’s the grounding in truth that makes it funny.
On the Feast of the Assumption, our pastor reminded us that Mary is not lolling about in heaven eating ambrosia and nectar, she is going about the world on her Son’s work, praying and encouraging the faithful.
The saints in this life who could bilocate did not have that ability given to them so they could sleep in on Saturday but rather so that they could go about doing even more good works. They had it so they could work more than twice as hard as everyone else on the Lord’s business.
My Dominican nun in grammar school asked us what we would do if we found out the world was about to end. Although she approved of the answer, “Head to confession immediately in order to meet the end in a state of grace,” she informed us the correct answer should be to keep on doing what we are doing, since we should always be doing the right thing and not wasting the time the Lord has given us.
Great thoughts, WC.
We are the Church Militant! Fight! Fight! The Church Triumphant has got our backs…
These are great thoughts, Mama! Thanks!!