If, as Christ said, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, does that not also mean we can already be living in a kingdom way now? Not getting into the semantics of timing and eschatology, there is something to what Mr. Arnold wrote regarding living now in the reality of what the true church is. I'm not keen on the controversial word of "emerging" and the baggage that carries with it. The church has been already. Regarding our way of life while we are in His church, I can agree that work is much maligned. We have been trained to believe that work is bad, especially manual labor. We are brought up to take steps to reduce work. Much of our technological efforts have been on a path to reduce the work of humans. The Industrial Revolution was a wave of change that implemented machines instead of humans. Due to the economic gain, the revolution was nearly universally heralded as good. The Information Age has similar evangelists crying out how much better society is and will be with advancements in technology. All of this has the effect of further denigrating work. The cause of this view is the artificial connection we have made between economic gain and work. We assign value to our efforts by attaching a price on it. Consider this, however. The first work was not based on any economic system (notwithstanding the economy of God). The first work and the first post-diluvial work were not economically based. They were in obedience to the Creator. There is no other justification or motivation for work than because God says so. That doesn't mean that Paul didn't need to be a tent maker. However, was Paul's motivation for work avarice or something else? What will our motivation be for work in our glorified state? Can we not already be motivated in the same way, now, then?

Unfortunately many people and think of work in self-centered, practical terms- a way to make a living economically, a way to advance to a more comfortable lifestyle, a way to achieve more power. Politicians, teachers, parents, college "career" counselors all drill this into the heads of young people , who also tote cellphones and laptops like they're life necessities. Education becomes job training for a "career"- not a way to become a better, more whole person. Even my parents subscribe to that narrow line of thinking. I once took a career class at a local community college who made an impassioned speech about a career being a vocation. Being a former Franciscan friar who takes the term "vocation" to mean something very different, her statement made me wretch. By the way, I never bothered taking the final exam, but she still gave me a passing grade. How different is work seen as a call to service, a fruit of listening to God. I also think of the papal social encyclicals of recent years which dwell on the meaning of work as well as the treatment of workers. This essay runs along those same lines- work as seen as a means to advance God's kingdom in ourselves and in the world.